/2-.i~.  /S, 


**^^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Purchased   by  the  Hamill   Missionary  Fund. 


BY  2085  .S8  1900 
Storrs,  Richard  S.  1821- 

1900. 
Addresses  on  foreign 

missions  delivered  before 


ADDRESSES  ON  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


American  Board  of  Commissioners 
FOR  Foreign  Missions 


RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  BOARD 
1887—1897 


^Bablt'slielr  tig  tfje  amettcan  ISoarU  of  fi^omtntssiontrs  for  iForeign  fHisstons 

CONGREGATIONAL    HOUSE.    BOSTON 
1900 


Press  of  Samuel  Usher,  Boston,  Mass. 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


The  following  addresses,  excepting  the  last,  were  delivered  at  suc- 
cessive Annual  Meetings  of  the  American  Board,  by  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs, 
President  of  the  Board  from  1887  to  1897.  The  last  one  in  the  series 
was  delivered  by  him,  in  answer  to  special  request,  at  the  concluding 
session  of  the  International  Congregational  Council  in  Boston,  in 
September,  1899.  In  this  latter  service  he  took  the  place,  for  the 
occasion,  of  Dr.  C.  M.  Lamson,  who  had  succeeded  him  in  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Board,  but  who  had  passed  out  of  earthly  life  in  the 
previous  summer;  and  his  particular  theme  was  the  one  which  had 
been  selected  by  Dr.  Lamson  for  himself,  in  anticipation  of  that  im- 
portant meeting.  It  has  seemed,  therefore,  altogether  appropriate  to 
add  this  address  to  the  others  which  had  preceded. 

None  of  the  addresses  had  been  written  beforehand,  and  they  were 
accordingly  preserved  only  by  the  skill  and  diligence  of  reporters. 
Where  special  arrangements  for  such  had  been  made  —  as  at  Cleve- 
land, Minneapolis,  Chicago,  and  elsewhere — the  reports  were  com- 
monly accurate  and  complete.  Where,  for  any  reason,  the  reports  had 
been  left  to  be  made  by  representatives  of  the  secular  press,  they  were 
commonly  found  to  be  incorrect  in  important  particulars,  or  abridged 
and  partial,  as  at  Pittsfield.  In  one  instance,  of  the  address  at  Madi- 
son in  1894,  while  certain  leading  lines  of  thought  had  been  repro- 
duced, the  report  as  a  whole  was  so  unsatisfactory  that  no  effort  was 
made  to  revise  and  complete  it,  and  hence  it  is  not  included  in  this 
collection. 

The  controlling  theme  in  all  the  addresses  was,  of  course,  the  same 
—  the  duty  and  privilege  of  foreign  missionary  work ;  but  it  was  the 
desire  of  the  speaker,  as  was  uniformly  noticed,  to  present  this  theme 


4  PREFATORY  NOTE. 

under  such  different  aspects,  and  in  such  various  relations,  as  might 
seem  appropriate  to  the  several  communities  in  which  the  meetings 
were  held,  and  to  any  special  conditions  there  at  the  time  appearing. 

So  many  requests  have  been  made  to  the  officers  of  the  Board  by 
those  interested  in  its  work  for  the  publication  of  this  series  of  ad- 
dresses, of  which  only  three  have  been  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  that, 
with  the  consent  of  Dr.  Storrs,  they  are  now  brought  together  in  the 
present  form  — in  the  hope  that,  with  God's  blessing,  they  may  quicken 
and  widen  interest  in  the  great  cause  which  they  were  designed  to  serve. 
It  is  confidently  believed  that  the  powerful  impressions  produced  when 
these  addresses  were  first  delivered,  at  a  critical  period  in  the  history 
of  the  Board,  will  be  revived  in  many  who  heard  them,  and  that  others 
now  and  in  coming  years  will  read  them  with  profit  and  delight,  as 
among  the  best  specimens  of  sacred  eloquence  employed  upon  the 
noblest  of  themes. 

Rooms  of  the  American  Board, 
Boston,  April,  1900. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

I.    Why  Christians   Gather    for    Foreign    Missions.    Cleve- 
land, 1888 9 

Concluding  Address  at  Cleveland 21 

II.    Relations  of  Foreign  Missions  and  Commerce.    New  York, 

1889 33 

Concluding  Address  at  New  York 46 

III.  The    Opportunity    of    the    West   in    Foreign    Missions. 

Minneapolis,  1890 53 

Concluding  Address  at  Minneapolis 69 

IV,  The  Vision  of  Christ  the  Inspiration-  to   Foreign   Mis- 

sions.    PiTTSFIELD,  1 89 1 75 

'    V.    Our   Country's   Tribute   to   the    World's    Civilization. 

Chicago,  1892 85 

VI.    The  Appeal  of  Foreign  Missions  to  Business  Communities. 

Worcester,  1893 103 

VII.    The  Aim  of  Foreign  Missions.    Brooklyn,  1895  .        .        .  121 
VIII.    Incentives  to  Missionary  Work.    Toledo,  1896  .        .        .139 
IX.    Foundation  Truths  of  American  Missions.    New  Haven, 

1897 IS7 

X.    The    Permanent    Motive  in  Missionary  Work.    Interna- 
tional Congregational  Council,  Boston,  1899        .        .  173 


I. 
m^V  C]^rt0tian0  (Batten  Cor  ifforefgn 

ADDRESS  AT  THE   ANNUAL   MEETING   AT  CLEVELAND,  1888. 

WITH   CONCLUDING   ADDRESS. 


WHY  CHRISTIANS  GATHER   FOR  FOREIGN 
MISSIONS. 


Fathers  and  Brethren,  and  Christian  Friends :  I  do  not  think 
that  any  one,  not  of  his  blood,  can  miss  this  evening  the  reverend 
and  benignant  face  of  him  who  so  long  presided  over  this  Board 
more  keenly  than  I  do.  It  has  been  my  happiness,  not  infrequently, 
to  speak  upon  the  platform  of  the  Board,  but  always,  when  I  have 
done  so  hitherto,  I  have  been  introduced  by  him  ;  and  I  feel,  while 
standing  here  this  evening,  somewhat  as  one  might  when  treading 
a  high  path  with  the  hand  of  a  leader  and  a  friend  suddenly  with- 
drawn. But  I  know  that  so  much  of  his  spirit  has  gone  into  the 
Board,  and  into  those  who  are  its  friends,  that  you  will  hear  me 
with  readiness,  and  with  a  welcome  like  that  which  you  have 
already  expressed. 

I  have  another  sense  of  diffidence  in  saying  anything  this  even- 
ing, because  I  speak  after  these  veteran  missionaries,  who  have 
returned  from  their  fields  of  labor  and  of  struggle,  and  who  have 
come  to  give  us  their  impressions  of  the  fields  in  which  they 
have  worked,  and  of  the  vast  importance  of  these  to  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  the  earth.  In  the  old  times  of  the  war,  you  know,  we 
used  to  rejoice  to  hear  the  story  of  a  soldier,  of  an  oflScer,  returned 
from  the  field,  rather  than  to  hear  the  discourse  of  any  man  con- 
cerning the  war  who  had  not  himself  had  a  part  in  it ;  and  I  have 
something  of  that  feeling  this  evening,  and  would  far  rather  sit  and 
listen  to  those  who  bring  us  tidings  from  afar  than  to  say  anything 
myself,  if  the  custom  and  propriety  of  the  occasion  did  not  demand 
that  I  should.  And  then  I  have  still  a  third  feeling  in  the  same 
direction  :  that  this  meeting  itself,  this  great  assembly  of  the  Board 
and  of  its  friends,  is  the  real  speaker  on  this  occasion ;  and  that 
any  single  voice  is  insignificant  in  comparison  with  the  appeal 


lO  PV^V   CHRISTIANS   GATHER 

which  the  vast  assemblage  makes  to  all  our  minds,  to  all  our 
hearts.  I  believe  it  is  Schiller  who  says  that  "  if  you  compact  the 
thunder  into  one  quick  peal,  the  royal  sound  will  shake  the  earth ; 
but  if  you  distribute  the  thunder  into  single  and  separated  tones, 
those  tones  become  a  lullaby  for  children."  So  I  feel  that  the 
voice,  inarticulate  though  it  be,  of  this  assembly,  is  the  real  speaker 
on  this  occasion. 

But,  as  I  have  been  sitting  here  in  this  day  or  two  of  work  and 
of  responsibility,  yet  with  intervals  of  thought,  I  have  asked  myself 
the  question,  again  and  again.  Why  are  we  here .?  And  it  is  to  that 
question  that  I  propose  to  give,  in  some  brief  measure,  an  answer. 
The  land  around  us  is  echoing  at  this  moment  with  a  vast  pro- 
longed political  debate ;  processions  are  marching  along  the 
streets,  with  banners  and  torches  ;  great  assemblies  are  gathered  to 
hear  the  words  of  eloquent  speakers ;  the  columns  of  the  news- 
papers are  filled  with  paragraphs  resonant  and  impelling,  and 
all  men  are  called  to  choose  their  sides,  and  to  take  their  part  in 
the  great  work  in  which  the  nation  is  now  engaged.  It  is  right  and 
reasonable  that  this  should  be  so.  This  great  debate  is  educating 
as  well  as  animating  —  educating  the  citizens,  on  whom  it  calls  to 
perform  the  highest  function  which  is  committed  to  them.  We 
may  be  in  sympathy  with  one  party,  or  another  party,  or  a  third 
party,  but  we  are  all  in  sympathy  with  the  patriotic  impulse  which 
underlies  the  immense  and  significant  movement. 

Now,  we  are  gathered  here,  not  primarily  by  any  patriotic  im- 
pulse, though  that  has  its  part  in  our  assembly,  since  whatever 
great  work  a  nation  undertakes  greatens  the  nation ;  whatever 
magnificent  enterprise  the  church  of  Christ  enters  upon  and  carries 
on,  gives  new  power  to  that  church  ;  and  the  church  in  this  coun- 
try is  to  have  its  power  for  subduing  the  country  to  Christ  by  the 
mighty  effort  which  it  makes  to  conquer  the  world  for  the  Master ; 
so  that  it  is  in  that  sense  a  patriotic  impulse  which  brings  us  hither. 
But  that  is  not  the  primary  thing.  Nor  do  we  come  here  in  fealty 
to  an  organization.  Much  as  we  value,  highly  as  we  honor,  deeply 
as  we  venerate  this  American  Board,  which  antedated  the  life  of 
almost  every  one  present,  and  which  has  wrought  such  illustrious 
work  in  the  past,  it  is  not  merely  in  loyalty  to  that  that  we  are  here 


FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  I 

assembled,  as  men  may  be  gathered  by  their  fidelity  to  the  Repub- 
lican organization,  or  the  Democratic,  or  that  of  the  Prohibition 
party ;  or  as  the  Roman  Catholic  missions  are,  to  a  certain  extent, 
inspired  and  animated  by  the  devotion  of  those  who  take  part  in 
them  to  the  great  Roman  Catholic  organization  which  they  repre- 
sent. No  !  Our  aims  are  ampler  and  remoter.  Why,  then,  are 
we  here? 

We  are  here,  first,  because  of  our  sympathy  with  men  of  every 
race,  of  every  religion,  and  every  color,  and  every  clime,  and  every 
form  of  social  organization.  We  desire  to  benefit  them  whereso- 
ever we  can  reach  them  \  and  that  is  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  who 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister ;  who  made  the 
power  of  miracle,  which  was  lodged  in  his  will  and  regnant  on  his 
hands,  mighty  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering,  the  uplifting  of  the 
lowly,  and  the  comforting  of  the  sad.  That  is  the  Christian  spirit. 
"Ich  dien"  (I  serve)  is  the  legend  on  the  crest  of  every  prince 
in  the  royal  house  of  God.  It  was  in  that  spirit  that  missions 
originated  ;  it  is  in  that  spirit  that  they  have  been  carried  on  ;  it  is 
in  that  spirit  that  they  will  continue  to  be  carried  on,  to  the  end  of 
time.  We  do  not  propose  merely  to  seek,  either,  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  men,  but  to  seek  to  advance  their  material  and  physical 
interests  as  well,  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  which  is  for  the 
life  that  now  is  as  well  as  for  that  which  is  to  come. 

Not  a  great  while  ago,  I  heard  a  lady  who  was  returning  fi-om 
voyaging  around  the  world,  a  lady  not  interested  in  mission  work, 
say,  "  Whenever  I  attended  church  at  home  I  was  called  upon, 
very  frequently  certainly,  if  not  always,  to  contribute  to  missionary 
work,  and  I  gave,  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less;  but  I 
thought,  when  I  got  out  of  America,  I  had  escaped  such  appeals. 
I  landed  in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  I  went  to  a  church  in  Honolulu, 
and  the  first  sermon  I  heard  was  a  missionary  sermon,  and  the 
first  serv^ice  in  which  I  was  called  to  take  part  was  to  assist  a  col- 
lection for  proclaiming  the  gospel  to  people  in  Africa."  Said  she, 
"  I  believe  I  am  never  going  to  get  rid  of  this  thing ! "  There 
is  an  old  Indian  legend,  I  believe,  that  a  poor  man  threw  a  bud 
of  charity  into  Buddha's  bowl,  and  it  blossomed  into  a  thousand 
flowers.     Now,  we  throw  out  the  bud  of  Christian  truth,  by  the 


12  WHY  CHRISTIANS    GATHER 

Gospel,  into  scattered  communities  here  and  there  throughout  the 
earth,  and  it  bursts  into  a  thousand  fragrant  blossoms.  We  are 
contemplating,  as  I  said,  not  merely  the  spiritual  welfare  of  men, 
though  that  chiefly,  but  also  their  present  advancement  and  wel- 
fare in  the  world ;  for  there  is  nothing  like  the  power  of  the  gospel 
to  lift  nations  into  the  light  and  peace,  and  the  glorious  hope, 
which  come  with  liberty.  There  is  nothing  like  that  to  give  men 
spur  and  expectation  for  the  life  on  the  earth,  as  well  as  for  that 
in  the  coming  Immortality. 

Men  say  sometimes  that  right  religious  thought  is  connected 
undoubtedly  with  right  religious  emotion,  but  with  nothing  else. 
There  never  was  a  greater  mistake  made  by  any  intelligent  person. 
Right  religious  thought  has  to  do  with  all  life  —  with  the  entire 
conduct  and  prosperity  of  our  affairs  in  the  world.  It  is  spoken 
of  as  being  the  "water  of  life  "  ;  and  it  is  like  the  water,  which  is 
in  the  breath  of  the  babe  and  in  the  bone  of  the  man,  which  is  in 
the  dewdrop,  which  is  in  the  mill  stream,  which  is  in  the  fleecy 
cloud,  which  is  in  the  boiler  of  the  engine,  which  is  in  the  rainbow 
that  lifts  its  shining  arch  above  us,  and  in  the  cataract  whose  tre- 
mendous rush  and  precipitous  fall  go  on  underneath  that  lovely  and 
lustrous  arch.  I  have  sometimes  thought,  in  the  universality  of  its 
application,  that  it  was  like  the  paper  which  men  make  out  of 
defiled  and  rotting  rags,  —  one  of  the  miracles  of  modern  industry ; 
on  which  are  impressed  the  great  truths  of  the  Bible,  yes  !  on  which 
are  impressed  the  great  thoughts  of  preachers  and  teachers,  yes  ! 
but  on  which  also  the  lady  writes  her  note,  and  the  poet  writes  his 
lays,  and  the  author  writes  his  essays  or  treatises,  and  the  merchant 
writes  his  accounts,  and  on  which  nations  conduct  their  corre- 
spondence, —  which  enters  as  a  material  into  almost  a  hundred  and 
fifty  mechanical  arts  ;  of  which  the  roofs  and  walls  of  houses  are 
sometimes  builded,  which  is  fabricated  into  toys  for  the  hand  of 
childhood,  and  which  is  wedged  and  rammed  and  moulded  into 
the  car-wheel,  on  which  flows  back  and  forth,  with  incessant  and 
resounding  recurrence,  the  commerce  of  a  continent.  So  it  is 
with  religious  thought.  It  has  to  do  with  every  part  of  life  ;  and 
it  has  to  do,  especially,  with  peoples  in  whom  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise and  hope  is  re-arising. 


FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


13 


I  was  very  much  struck,  not  a  great  while  ago,  with  the  pro- 
found remark  of  an  English  civilian,  statesman,  thinker,  personally 
resident  in  India  and  familiar  with  it,  to  whom  reference  was  made 
by  Secretary  Clark  a  day  or  two  since  :  to  the  effect  that  Brah- 
minism  and  Buddhism  were  rehgions  that  sprang  up  in  centuries 
of  extreme  depression,  and  were  essentially,  therefore,  religions  of 
despair.  They  undertook  to  give  an  answer  to  the  question,  "  Is 
life  worth  living?  "  and  the  answer  was  "  No  !  the  only  superlative 
good  of  man  is  the  extinction  of  personal  consciousness."  Now, 
that  there  stirs  a  new  spirit  in  India,  in  China,  and  in  Japan,  the 
old  religions  drop  away  from  the  aspiring  and  expectant  men  and 
women,  as  a  tainted  garment  drops  off  from  the  frame  resuming 
health  and  vigor ;  and  Christianity,  which  is  a  religion  of  impulse, 
of  hope,  of  aspiration,  crowned  with  celestial  promises,  comes  in  to 
meet  this  new  temper  of  enterprise,  and  to  build  better  things  in 
all  the  future,  in  all  these  lands.  We  work  for  the  life  that  now 
is,  as  well  as  for  that  which  is  to  come. 

Above  all  things  else,  we  work  for  the  conversion  to  God  by  a 
living  faith ;  for  the  union  with  Christ  by  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  we  carry  the  message  of  divine 
love ;  that  they  may  be  set  as  stars  in  the  firmament  on  high ;  that 
they  may  join  with  angels  and  saints  in  the  praises  and  the  glories 
of  the  life  everlasting.  It  is  this  impulse  which  brings  us  together : 
sympathy  with  men,  a  desire  to  bless  them,  and  then  enthusiasm 
for  the  truth  —  enthusiasm  for  the  truth  because  of  its  own  glory, 
and  not  merely  because  of  the  effects  it  works  on  those  who 
receive  it.  We  are  not  alone  in  feeling  such  enthusiasm  for  truth. 
The  philosopher  feels  it,  the  scientific  man  feels  it,  the  artist  feels 
it  —  toward  the  principles  which  are  primordial  and  "sovereign  in 
the  department  of  art.  But  we  feel  it  the  more,  because  the  truth 
toward  which  our  minds  go  out  is  the  supreme  truth  of  the  uni- 
verse, which  God  himself  (reverently  be  it  said)  became  an  author 
to  reveal  to  us  :  which  comes  to  us  by  the  hands  of  apostles  from 
the  Master  himself :  which  illuminates  all  other  truth,  which 
enriches  and  enforces  every  soul  into  which  it  enters.  Men  who 
do  not  believe  much,  who  are  of  a  pyrrhonic  or  agnostic  tendency, 
will  sneer  at  this  earnestness,  very  likely,  and  call  it  bigotry.    They 


H 


IVI/Y  CHRISTIANS   GATHER 


did  that  in  the  ante-Nicene  times,  and  they  have  done  it  ever 
since.  The  difference  between  homo-ousion  and  homoi-ousion  is 
to  them  a  mere  matter  of  breath,  not  worth  a  thought.  The 
filioque  which  rent  Christendom  asunder,  which  divided  the  Greek 
and  Roman  churches,  and  has  kept  them  asunder  for  centuries, 
seems  a  fanciful  phrase,  or  a  phrase  of  fanatical  frenzy,  to  a  great 
multitude  of  people  ;  who  are  about  as  careless  or  ignorant  of  the 
truth  as  the  young  lady  was  of  botany,  when  she  was  called  upon 
—  in  a  civil  service  examination,  perhaps  —  to  tell  something 
about  botany.  Well,  she  said,  she  really  did  not  know  very  much 
about  it ;  she  had  studied  it  once,  a  good  many  years  ago,  but  she 
had  forgotten  almost  all ;  she  did  not  know  that  she  could  quite 
tell  the  difference  between  a  cryptogram  and  a  pachyderm. 
[Laughter.] 

Now,  if  we  do  not  know  the  difference  between  the  truth 
and  something  which  is  not  truth,  we  shall  not  enter  into  this 
enthusiasm  for  the  work  of  missions.  But  our  fathers  felt  it,  when 
they  left  the  English  Church,  with  its  ancient  and  magnificent 
universities,  with  delightful  parish  churches  and  manses,  and  came 
to  these  wilderness  shores  because  the  truth  compelled  them. 
They  felt  it  afterwards,  in  the  time  of  the  Unitarian  division  and 
debate.  We  feel  it  whensoever  we  think  of  the  truth  as  it  really 
is,  opening  to  us  the  secrets  of  the  universe,  revealing  the  moral 
law  to  which  all  physical  laws  are  only  the  temporary  platform, 
showing  to  us  the  redemption,  and  the  great  white  throne,  with 
the  eternal  heavens  beyond  !  We  feel  the  glory  of  the  truth  for  its 
own  sake,  and  because  God,  with  the  infinite  enthusiasm  of  his 
divine  mind,  has  communicated  it  to  us ;  and  we  shall  feel  it  more 
and  more  if  a  rampant  infidelity  is  to  invade  our  platforms  widely, 
and  to  crowd  our  halls  with  those  who  have  come  to  hear  something 
new  and  startling,  staggering  even  to  the  moral  nature.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  there  was  a  providential  reason  for  permitting 
infidel  speeches  to  become  frequent  in  a  Christian  community.  It 
does  not  harm  Christianity.  It  does  not  check  its  advance,  any 
more  than  the  screech  of  the  steam-whistle  down  here  checks  the 
rush  of  the  wave  on  the  lake  shore,  or  would  check  the  tide,  if 
Lake   Erie  was   big  enough  to  have  one.     [Laughter.]     These 


FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  1 5 

infidel  teachings,  like  a  deadly  drug,  which,  in  its  reactive  effect, 
makes  the  Hfe-power  in  man  more  complete  and  more  command- 
ing, may  bring  out  a  fresh  enthusiasm  for  the  truth  in  those  who 
believe,  who  love  it,  who  glory  in  it,  but  who  have  been  too  much 
accustomed  to  take  it  with  a  kind  of  languid  acceptance  as  a 
matter  of  course.  When  this  enthusiasm  is  in  us,  then  we  are 
brought  together,  of  course,  by  our  common  desire  for  common 
work. 

Then  I  say  for  myself,  and  I  am  sure  I  say  it  for  every  thought- 
ful person  in  this  assembly,  I  love  to  be  in  this  work  because  I 
love  to  stand  in  the  ranks,  and  march  in  the  footsteps,  of  those  who 
have  gone  before  me  in  the  best  work  of  the  world,  the  work  which 
God  most  honors,  in  which  he  is  most  pleased,  by  which  he  is 
most  praised,  and  to  which  he  gives  the  most  illustrious  promises. 
Every  man  Hkes  to  stand  in  a  grand  succession  of  kindred  spirits. 
The  jurist  does,  the  artist  does,  the  scholar  does,  the  professional 
man  in  any  department  does,  and  the  Christian  well  may.  "  My 
soul  be  with  the  saints  ! "  That  was  the  ejaculation  of  old,  and 
that  may  be  the  fervent  aspiration  of  every  intelligent  and  immor- 
tal spirit  now.  What  a  striking  fact  it  is  that  the  positivist  calen- 
dar, the  calendar  of  the  disciples  of  Comte,  recognizing  no  personal 
God  whatever,  and  no  true  worship  offered  to  an  unseen  God,  yet 
gathers  apart  on  its  rolls  the  noble  and  heroic  spirits  of  the  world, 
blazons  them  on  its  books,  and  sets  apart  a  day  for  the  celebration 
or  commemoration  of  every  one.  That  shows  the  depth  and  power 
of  that  instinct  in  the  heart  which  leads  us  to  wish  to  stand  in  the 
same  line  with  the  grand  ones  who  have  gone  before.  We  wish  to 
stand  there,  with  Martyn,  and  Brainerd,  and  Carey,  and  Judson, 
and  Ann  Hasseltine,  and  Harriet  Newell,  and  all  the  others  who 
have  given  luster  to  history  by  their  self-consecration  to  the  worjc 
of  the  Master.     We  wish  to  work  with  them. 

Not  with  them  only.  We  go  back  to  the  medieval  time,  and 
wish  to  stand  with  Boniface,  and  Adelbert,  and  Columban,  and 
Anskar,  and  all  the  others.  We  go  back  to  the  early  apostles,  and 
the  Christians  who  went  everywhere,  their  hearts  burning  in  them, 
testifying  of  the  Master  and  of  his  truth,  and  of  his  promise.  We 
wish  to  be  in  the  line  of  those  who  have  marched  under  the  golden 


1 6  IVJ/V  CHRISTIANS   GATHER 

trumpets  of  God,  and  under  that  one  banner  in  the  world  that 
never  goes  down,  and  to  feel  that  their  influence  descends  upon 
us.  [Applause.]  When  we  feel  this  power  within  us  we  are 
pulled  together,  as  each  particle  in  the  crystal  is  pulled  to  every 
other  particle  to  form  the  lovely  and  radiant  whole. 

Then,  above  all,  the  sympathy  with  the  Son  of  God,  the  love  to 
him,  the  adoration  of  him,  the  desire  to  glorify  him  by  a  work 
consecrated  to  him  in  the  world,  which  is  the  intensest  force  of  all ! 
It  is  most  intense,  of  course,  in  the  time  of  revival,  when  our 
hearts  are  hot.  It  is  most  intense  after  some  experience  of  sore 
trial,  perhaps,  or  of  long  endurance,  or  of  great  work  from  which 
we  shrank,  to  which  he  pushed  us,  and  which  at  last,  under  his 
impulse,  we  resolutely  took  up.  Then  we  understand  the  power 
of  that  adoring  love  to  Christ !  Women  understand  it,  with  their 
more  sensitive  emotional  and  affectionate  nature,  perhaps,  more 
keenly  and  mightily  than  men.  The  babe  in  the  manger  touches 
the  mother's  heart ;  the  scene  on  the  cross  speaks  to  her  with  a 
pathos  and  a  power  never  to  be  paralleled  in  the  world.  The 
miracle  and  the  mercy,  the  cradle  and  the  crown,  the  illustrious 
ascension,  the  mediatorial  throne  of  splendor,  all  come  to  her,  as 
they  are  pictured  in  the  New  Testament,  as  they  are  revealed  by 
the  divine  Spirit  interpreting  the  New  Testament,  with  a  power  to 
lift  her  above  the  world,  and  to  make  her  desirous  to  live  only  for 
Christ.  So  the  Woman's  Board  comes  into  existence  and  activity, 
and  the  women  go  forth  to  visit  their  sisters  in  the  harem  and  the 
zenana,  and  to  minister  the  comfort  of  the  gospel  in  every  loneliest 
cottage,  almost  in  every  wildest  jungle  of  the  world. 

Men  know  it,  too.  They  know  it  through  song  and  sacrament, 
through  converse  with  each  other,  through  all  the  ministry  of  the 
church,  whose  very  office  and  purpose  it  is  to  manifest  the  Son 
of  God  for  evermore  on  earth ;  and  when  they  see  him  walking  in 
history,  trampling  the  turbulence  of  populations  into  peace,  when 
they  see  him  bringing  to  pass  his  vast  designs,  silently  but  irresist- 
ibly, when  they  think  of  him  on  the  cross,  under  which  the  strong 
earth  shivered,  and  over  which  the  heavens  grew  dark,  dying  for 
them,  and  now  on  the  throne  of  glory  in  the  heavens,  with  angels 
and  saints  praising  him  in  their  ceaseless  triumph,  they  feel  as 


FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


17 


Paul  did  "  when  it  pleased  God,"  as  he  said,  "  to  reveal  his  Son 
in  me."  He  had  revealed  his  Son  to  him  on  the  way  to  Damascus ; 
afterward  he  revealed  his  Son  in  him,  and  then,  says  the  apostle, 
**  I  conferred  not  with  flesh  or  blood  ;  I  was  ready  for  every  pil- 
grimage ;  I  was  ready  for  every  service,  at  Athens,  or  Corinth,  or 
Rome ;  I  was  ready  for  the  sword  of  the  empire  to  liberate  my 
life  from  its  earthly  fetters,  and  set  it  free  in  the  glory  of  God's 
saints."  Wheresoever  there  is  that  spirit  of  love  and  worship, 
and  consecration  to  the  Son  of  God,  there  men  come  together  by 
natural  force.  The  elective  affinities  of  the  world  pull  them 
into  one  marshaled  mass. 

And  then,  beyond  even  that,  is  the  desire  to  be  in  partnership 
with  God,  in  sympathy  with  his  majestic  plans  for  the  conversion 
of  the  world  and  the  renewal  of  the  earth  to  himself.  The  great 
reformers  have  always  felt  this.  Cromwell  felt  it,  and  William  of 
Orange,  as  well  as  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Calvin.  Our  fathers  felt  it, 
when  they  clung  to  the  continent  in  spite  of  winds  and  wolves  and 
winter  cold  and  savage  men,  knowing,  as  they  said,  and  as  they 
inscribed  it  on  their  statute  book,  that  small  colonies  are  the 
foundation  of  great  commonwealths.  They  wished  to  walk  with 
God,  and  to  work  with  him  in  his  mighty  plan ;  and  we  should  be 
recreant  to  our  ancestors,  we  should  be  forgetful  of  the  obligation 
that  comes  from  a  noble  and  religious  descent,  if  we  did  not  feel 
the  same  aspiration,  and  were  not  conscious  of  the  same  purpose. 

We  should  be  the  meanest  of  all  whom  God  ever  created  on 
earth  if,  with  our  faith  in  him  and  in  his  providence,  we  did  not 
desire  to  cooperate  with  him,  especially  in  these  times,  when  he  is 
working  so  signally  and  manifestly.  Think  of  his  work  in  the 
past !  He  sent  the  printing  press  when  he  was  ready,  and  the 
needle  of  the  compass,  and  the  telescope  to  search  the  stars. 
Before  that,  he  had  made  the  Roman  Empire  bend  and  break 
beneath  his  touch,  with  all  its  consolidated  strength,  the  glory  of 
ages.  He  had  taken  our  savage  ancestors,  yours  and  mine,  and 
made  them  bow  before  him  and  accomplish  his  design ;  and  when 
the  time  came  he  picked  up  this  continent  out  of  the  sea,  on  the 
point  of  the  needle,  that  he  might  cover  it  with  a  purified  religion, 
and  make  it  the  throne  of  that  religion  in  all  the  earth  for  all  the 


1 8  fV//Y  CHRISTIANS   GATHER 

centuries.  [Applause.]  He  built  our  nation  into  sudden  power, 
beyond  the  expectation  of  those  who,  humanly  speaking,  were  its 
founders.  When  the  time  came  he  so  wiped  out  slavery  with  one 
swift  stroke  of  his  red  right  hand  that  it  shall  never  appear  again. 
[Applause.]  Everything  portends  the  coming  of  events  toward 
which  God's  plans  have  always  been  working,  and  toward  which 
now  he  makes  the  centuries  hurry,  and  it  is  our  grand  privilege 
to  work  with  him  in  this  vast  enterprise  for  the  renewing  of  the 
world  ;  and  whensoever  we  see  those  august  plans,  and  take  part 
in  them  with  a  true  enthusiasm  of  the  heart,  then  we  come  to- 
gether ;  then  we  combine  our  forces  with  each  other,  and  then,  in 
an  armament,  not  merely  as  individuals,  we  go  forth  with  banners 
flying,  and  voices  triumphant,  to  speed  on  the  good  work  for 
which  the  ages  wait  and  for  which  Christ  died. 

And  it  is  very  noticeable,  in  this  progress  of  the  divine  plan, 
how  powers  hostile  to  the  gospel  are  weakening.  Our  dear  and 
venerated  friend,  Dr.  Hamlin,  gave  us  illustrations  of  that  in  his 
story  this  morning  of  the  decadence  of  Islam.  I  believe  —  I  will 
not  speak  with  certainty  (he  has  seen  if  it  is  there  and  I  have  not) 
—  that  over  a  central  door  iu  the  mosque  which  was  the  ancient 
church  of  Saint  Sophia,  in  Constantinople,  there  was  a  magnificent 
mosaic  picture  of  the  Christ,  holding  the  Gospel  in  one  hand  and 
extending  the  other  in  benediction,  which  the  Moslems  capturing 
the  city  covered  with  paint  and  with  cement ;  that  there  was  a 
tradition  among  them,  which  has  not  died,  that  whenever  that 
figure  of  the  Christ  should  reappear  the  power  of  the  Moslem  in 
Europe  would  fail  and  pass ;  and  that  that  figure  of  the  Christ, 
through  the  scaling  of  the  paint  and  the  mortar,  is  beginning  again 
to  be  dimly  visible  in  its  mighty  and  benignant  lines.  [Applause.] 
Yes,  the  weakening  of  hostile  powers,  with  the  ever  increasing 
strength  of  Christian  powers,  illustrate  the  same  march  of  divine 
providence.  And  let  us  remember  that  the  poor  and  obscure 
peoples  of  the  world  are  to  be  God's  chosen  instruments  in  the 
future  toward  which  the  world  is  tending  ! 

I  was  very  much  struck  the  other  day  with  a  remark  in  the 
volume,  the  beautiful  and  brilliant  volume,  of  a  professor  in  a 
Western  college,  with  which  our  Brother  Dr.  Magoun  has  long 


FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  9 

been  connected,  to  the  effect  that  of  the  twelve  stones  in  the 
foundations  of  the  new  Jerusalem  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  repre- 
sents the  ultimate  spiritual  and  social  divine  order  in  the  earth, 
nine  are  of  the  commonest  material  —  the  quartz,  and  the  alumi- 
num, which  are  the  common  constituent  elements  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  globe.  So  these  poor,  obscure,  depressed,  and  almost 
unknown  persons  and  peoples,  as  reached  by  the  gospel,  purified 
by  the  divine  Spirit,  are  to  become  associated  as  foundation  stones 
in  the  grand  temple  of  universal  liberty,  universal  illumination, 
universal  peace,  and  universal  worship.     [Applause.] 

So  it  is  that  we  are  gathered.  We  are  to  send  the  gospel ;  to 
send  it,  as  was  suggested  in  the  sermon  the  other  evening,  as  a 
seminal  germ,  to  enter  into  the  mind  of  nations,  and  to  develop 
itself  according  to  its  law,  under  the  conditions  and  circumstances 
which  are  familiar  to  those  nations.  We  do  not  care  particularly  to 
make  Congregationalists  out  of  the  Japanese,  or  out  of  the  China- 
men, or  out  of  the  Hindus.  Perhaps  they  will  not  become  Con- 
gregationalist,  thoroughly,  until  they  have  advanced  so  far  on  the 
way  to  spiritual  perfection  that  our  mission  to  them  will  have  been 
fulfilled.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Bui  we  want  to  send  them 
the  gospel,  that  they  may  take  it  in,  manifest  it  in  the  forms  which 
are  to  them  familiar,  and  that  it  may  be  within  them  as  a  power 
of  light  and  life  and  glory,  lifting  them  up  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
throne  of  God.  Oh,  my  Brethren,  it  is  a  work  magnificent.  If 
there  be  silence  in  heaven  for  the  space  of  half  an  hour,  it  must 
be  because  angels  and  saints  are  watching  the  on-going  of  this 
stupendous  work  !  It  is  the  work  for  which  Christ  shed  his  blood  ; 
it  is  the  work  for  which  the  spirit  of  God  came  at  Pentecost,  and 
has  been  abiding  with  his  church  from  that  day  to  this ;  it  is  the 
one  work  certain  of  success  and  victory.  Yes,  Victory;  for  as 
surely  as  the  world  stands,  the  plan  of  God  in  its  redemption  shall 
be  carried  out,  as  was  his  plan  in  its  creation.  We  take  hold  of 
the  hand  of  Omnipotence ;  and  what  shall  surpass,  what  shall 
exhaust,  the  courage  and  the  confidence  which  come  from  clasp- 
ing the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  and  feeling  the  infinite  pulses  upon 
our  own  ?  The  Christian  paradox  is  to  be  realized.  Let  us  glory 
in  the  thought.     The  mean  things  of  the  world  are  to  subdue  the 


20       fTiyr  CHRISTIANS  GATHER  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

mighty,  and  the  despised  things  of  the  world  are  to  overcome  the 
haughty,  and  the  things  which  are  not  are  to  bring  to  naught  the 
things  which  are ;  and  the  patient  and  dying  Lamb  is  to  conquer 
at  last  the  fury  and  the  fierceness  of  the  Lion  of  the  world.  [Pro- 
longed applause.] 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  CLEVELAND. 


There  have  been  a  great  many  pleasant  duties  connected  with 

this  meeting  of  the  Board,  devolving  upon  me.  It  is  an  extremely 
pleasant  duty  which  comes  as  the  closing  one,  of  expressing  to  the 
people  of  Cleveland,  and  to  the  committee  of  arrangements  by 
which  we  were  invited  here,  and  by  which  preparations  were  made 
for  our  coming  and  our  entertainment,  the  thanks  of  the  Board, 
which  have  just  been  incorporated  in  a  resolution,  for  their  kind 
invitation,  and  their  cordial  and  universal  greeting.  Some  of  us 
are  quite  aware,  from  our  own  experience  in  other  years,  of  the 
amount  of  care,  forethought,  solicitude,  and  direct  pecuniary  con- 
tribution, which  is  involved  in  the  entertainment  of  the  American 
Board ;  and  we  can  only  hope  that  you  may  find  hereafter,  as  we 
have  found  in  our  experience,  a  rich  reward  for  all  that  you  have 
done  in  connection  with  this  great  meeting.  It  is  a  good  thing  to 
have  many  Christian  friends  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  of  the 
world ;  and  you  of  Cleveland  will  have  more  to  remember  you 
affectionately,  and  to  offer  prayer  to  God  on  behalf  of  you  and  of 
your  churches,  in  time  to  come,  than  you  have  ever  had  in  the 
time  past.  Such  prayer  will  be  offered  not  only  in  our  home  con- 
gregations, but  in  Africa,  and  in  China,  and  in  India,  and  in  Japan, 
and  in  the  islands  of  the  sea. 

There  are  special  reasons,  of  course,  why  I  should  long  remem- 
ber this  meeting,  closing  so  pleasantly  the  first  year  of  my  official 
relations  to  the  Board ;  but  there  are  reasons  why  we  all,  who  have 
been  in  attendance  here,  will  remember  it  with  joy  and  gratitude, 
as  long  as  we  live  —  for  the  powerful  papers  which  have  been  pre- 
sented by  the  secretaries  of  the  Board,  and  by  the  various  commit- 
tees to  whom  their  reports  have  been  intrusted  for  examination,  for 
the  number  and  the  eloquence  of  the  remarks  of  the  missionaries 


22  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT   CLEVELAND. 

who  have  been  present  with  us,  veterans  returned  from  the  front  to 
tell  of  past  successes,  and  to  point  out  the  necessity  for  further  and 
advancing  work.  We  shall  remember  the  spirit  of  devoutness 
which  has  marked  the  prayers  and  the  songs  that  have  arisen  from 
this  assembly.  We  shall  recall  with  gladness  to  God  the  impulses 
which  have  come  here  into  our  hearts.  We  shall  remember  this 
charming  and  prosperous  city,  as  long  as  we  recall  these ;  and  we 
shall  remember  these  golden  and  benignant  hours  in  our  spiritual 
experience.  We  regret,  all  of  us,  that  we  have  not  been  permitted 
to  see  the  face  and  to  hear  the  voice  of  him  through  whom  this 
invitation  first  came  to  us,  and  whose  cordial  greeting  had  been 
one  of  our  joyful  hopes  as  we  looked  forward  to  this  meeting. 
God  has  taken  him  from  us,  for  the  time,  by  removing  his  earthly 
father  from  the  scene  of  his  labor  and  experience  here ;  and  our 
hearts  have  gone  out  after  him,  and  gone  up  to  God  on  his  behalf, 
and  they  will  continue  to  follow  him,  —  beseeching  the  Father  to 
draw  nearer  to  him  than  ever,  and  turning  the  sorrow  into  bene- 
diction and  making  it  an  impulse  of  life  to  him  in  all  the  fature 
of  his  ministry  on  earth. 

My  dear  friends,  we  can  think  and  speak  most  affectionately 
and  gratefully  of  everything  in  Cleveland  —  except  the  weather  ! 
[Laughter.]  And  I  do  not  know  but  that  has  been  providentially 
designed  for  our  instruction.  It  has  happened  to  me  to  be  three 
times  in  Cleveland  on  public  errands,  and  each  time  the  weather 
has  been  —  beyond  words.  [Laughter.]  I  have  no  doubt  that 
you  have  delightful  days  here,  sunny  and  summery.  But  the 
Arabs,  I  think,  have  a  proverb,  "  Blessed  be  the  stranger  whose 
coming  brings  rain  "  ;  and  perhaps  you  will  bless  the  American 
Board  on  that  account.  [Laughter.]  I  remember  (they  were 
recalled  to  me  this  morning  by  a  lady,  who  may  or  may  not  be 
present  in  the  assembly)  the  lines  of  Kingsley,  which  I  quoted 
once  over  thirty  years  ago,  and  have  hardly  recalled  since,  in 
which  he  speaks  of  the  "  soft  south  wind  "  as  the  "  lady's  breeze  " 
in  England,  — 

"  But  the  black  northeaster, 

Through  the  snowstorm  hurled, 
Drives  our  English  hearts  of  oak 
Seaward,  round  the  world  !  '' 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  CLEVELAND.  23 

So  I  hope  that  this  storm,  northeast  or  northwest,  or  whenceso- 
ever  it  has  come  (there  has  not  been  a  vane  in  sight  from  my 
window,  but  I  should  think  it  was  northeast,  from  the  tone  of  it), 
will  carry  this  missionary  work  only  more  widely  round  the  world. 
The  American  Board  has  met  northeast  storms  before  this,  —  not 
physical  only,  but  sometimes  spiritual,  —  and  it  has  always  been 
carried  further  in  its  march  by  the  power  of  them.  I  have  no 
doubt,  in  confidence  in  God  and  his  providence,  that  it  will  be  so 
now  and  henceforth,  and  evermore. 

I  am  reminded  as  I  stand  here,  more  impressively,  almost,  than 
ever  before,  of  the  swift  and  silent  passage  of  time,  and  of  the 
changes  which  it  brings.  The  first  annual  meeting  of  this  Ameri- 
can Board  which  I  ever  attended  was  held  in  the  city  of  Worcester, 
Mass.,  in  1844,  forty-four  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  youth  in  the 
seminary,  though  already  an  honorary  member  of  the  Board. 
Chancellor  Frelinghuysen  was  at  that  time  our  president.  A  great 
political  contest  was  going  on,  then  as  now,  in  the  country.  Henry 
Clay,  the  idol  of  the  Whig  party,  was  its  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dency, and  Chancellor  Frelinghuysen,  our  president,  was  its  can- 
didate for  the  vice-presidency  —  one  relation  in  which  I  delight 
to  be  absolutely  sure  that  the  successor  of  Chancellor  Freling- 
huysen in  this  chair  will  never  be  called  to  stand.  [Laughter  and 
applause.]  I  remember  those  who  were  present,  almost  as  if  it 
had  been  yesterday — Judge  Williams,  of  Connecticut,  vice-presi- 
dent ;  the  three  secretaries.  Dr.  Anderson,  Mr.  Green,  the  father 
of  the  brother  who  addressed  us  with  so  much  of  power  yesterday 
and  at  the  communion  service,  and  Dr.  Armstrong,  who  two  years 
later  was  snatched  from  the  earth  to  his  rest  above  in  the  fierce 
crash  of  the  steamer  Atlantic  on  the  rocks  of  Fisher's  Island.  Of 
the  members  of  the  prudential  committee,  then,  I  think,  number- 
ing seven,  not  one  is  living  on  the  earth  —  they  are  living  above. 
Dr.  Anderson  once  said  to  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  after  he  had 
heard  him  speak,  "  Dr.  Beecher,  I  hope  you  will  live  forever." 
"  Well,  I  expect  to  !  "  said  the  doctor ;  "  don't  you?  "  These  are 
living,  and  in  the  glorified  life  of  the  heavens,  but  they  are  no 
more  living  upon  the  earth.  Mr.  Barnes,  who  preached  the  ser- 
mon at  that  meeting,  has  for  almost  twenty  years  been  in  the  skies. 


24  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  CLEVELAND. 

Of  the  members  present  I  recall  a  good  many  not  one  of  whom 
remains  with  us  now  —  President  Day,  Dr.  Humphrey,  Dr.  Woods, 
Dr.  Justin  Edwards,  I  think  Dr.  William  T.  Dwight,  of  Portland, 
but  I  am  not  sure  of  that,  Professor  Goodrich,  of  New  Haven, 
Chancellor  Walworth,  Dr.  Cox,  Dr.  Skinner,  Dr.  Patton,  whose 
son  still  represents  the  father  on  your  platform.  Dr.  Edward 
Robinson,  and  many  others  whose  names  it  is  not  necessary  to 
mention,  who  have  all  passed  on  before  us.  The  first  time  that  I 
ever  heard  the  name  of  the  town  in  which  it  has  been  my  happi- 
ness to  live,  almost  ever  since,  mentioned  with  public  honor  in 
a  public  assembly  was  at  that  time,  when  Dr.  Cox  invited  the 
Board  to  meet  in  Brooklyn  the  following  year,  and  said,  in  his 
stately  and  delightful  way :  "  In  one  respect,  Brethren,  I  am  like 
Saul  of  Tarsus  —  'a  citizen  of  no  mean  city.'  "  I  did  not  know 
anything  about  Brooklyn  then.  It  is  not  impossible  that  that  re- 
mark of  the  doctor  had  some  influence  in  turning  my  steps  in 
that  direction  a  couple  of  years  later. 

That  passed  away,  and  seventeen  years  afterward,  or  twenty- 
seven  years  ago,  I  still  being  only  an  honorary  member  of  the 
Board,  was  appointed  to  preach  the  annual  sermon  in  this  city  of 
Cleveland  —  in  1861,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  or  after 
the  first  great  disaster  to  the  Northern  armies  in  that  war,  and 
when  the  mind  of  the  nation  was  immensely  depressed  and  widely 
despondent.  And,  again,  I  recall  those  who  were  here,  and  who 
have  passed  on  into  the  other  and  the  higher  life  —  Judge  Jessup, 
the  vice-president,  who  took  the  chair  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, then,  I  think,  in  Europe ;  Mr.  Dodge,  of  New  York,  whose 
wife  continues  to  represent  him  so  nobly  and  so  steadily  in  main- 
taining his  annual  gifts  to  the  Board,  since  he  has  gone  into  para- 
dise [applause]  ;  Dr.  Asa  D.  Smith,  Dr.  William  Adams,  Dr.  Aiken, 
of  this  city,  and  Mr.  Goodrich,  in  whose  church,  a  Presbyterian 
church,  the  Board  was  assembled.  I  remember  the  missionaries 
who  were  present  —  some  of  them  certainly  :  Dr.  Perkins,  of  Per- 
sia, and  Dr.  Chandler,  of  the  Madura  Mission,  Dr.  Lindley,  of  the 
Zulu  Mission,  and  others  whose  names  would  come  to  me  if  I  were 
to  pause  a  moment  to  recall  them.  Father  Keep,  of  Oberlin, 
came  into  that  meeting  almost  as  young,  while  almost  as  venerable 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT   CLEVELAND. 


25 


in  years,  as  our  dear  and  honored  friend,  Dr.  Porter,  who  spoke  to 
us  yesterday  —  I  do  not  know  that  he  was  ninety-two,  but  he  was 
certainly  approaching  the  nineties  —  straight  as  a  pine  tree,  and 
with  the  old  fire  burning  in  his  heart  and  speaking  in  his  voice. 
These  have  all  gone  on  before,  joining  the  missionaries  who  were 
at  the  earlier  meeting  of  which  I  have  spoken.  Bingham,  and 
Temple,  and  Dr.  Scudder,  who  is  still  so  nobly  represented  by  his 
sons  in  the  missionary  field,  with  Spaulding  of  Ceylon,  and  Tracy 
of  Singapore,  had  all,  I  think,  been  present  at  Worcester,  but 
most  of  them,  even  before  the  meeting  at  Cleveland,  had  gone 
on  to  see  the  face  of  the  Master. 

So  these  reminiscences  crowd  upon  me,  as  I  stand  again,  after 
twenty-seven  years,  in  this  city  of  Cleveland,  which,  at  the  time  of 
the  meeting  in  Worcester,  was  a  town  of  about  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants, chiefly  known  to  me  as  being  not  very  distant  from  the 
town  of  Hudson,  where  Western  Reserve  College  was  [laughter], 
and  which  I  think,  at  the  meeting  in  1861,  was  a  town  of  not  more 
than  forty  thousand  inhabitants,  though  I  may  not  be  wholly  cor- 
rect about  that.  We  meet  now,  in  this  great,  prosperous,  famous, 
expectant  city,  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people,  in  a  land 
from  which  all  storms  of  war  have  passed  away,  and  on  which 
beams  the  benignant  sunshine  of  divine  favor,  in  the  midst  of 
another  political  contest,  but  a  political  contest  the  ultimate  effect 
of  which,  we  know  beforehand,  whether  our  personal  hopes  are 
realized  or  disappointed,  will  be  for  the  honor  of  the  Master,  and 
the  advancement  of  his  kingdom  of  peace  and  righteousness  on 
the  earth. 

Well,  the  Board  lives,  though  its  members  die  !  The  Gospel  is 
young,  though  those  who  have  loved  it,  and  taught  it  to  others, 
ascend  to  the  fulfillment  of  its  glorious  promises.  The  mighty 
plans  of  God  march  on  to  their  fulfillment,  though  those  who 
have  seemed  to  be  important  instruments  in  the  accomplishment 
of  those  plans  are  taken  by  him  into  his  immediate  presence. 
The  missionary  work  of  the  world  is  a  fundamental  work,  under- 
neath all  educational  and  all  political  advancement,  and  all  human- 
itarian progress ;  and  the  missionary  thought  is  the  living  thought 
to-day  in  the  best  minds  of  Protestant  Christendom ;  and  we  are 


26  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT   CLEVELAND. 

to  trust  God  for  the  future.  The  nations  are  being  woven  to- 
gether in  continually  more  intimate  political  and  moral  alliances. 
Protestant  Christendom  has  a  power  in  the  world,  with  a  fame, 
and  a  mighty  influence,  which  it  never  had  before  since  history 
began.  We  are  nearer  the  consummation,  we  are  nearer  the  mil- 
lennial period,  than  when  the  Board  met  first  at  Farmington,  or 
afterward  at  Worcester,  and  we  need  never  be  discouraged. 

I  sympathize  with  every  word  of  appeal  which  has  been  ad- 
dressed to  us  from  this  platform,  this  morning  and  on  other  days, 
urging  enlarged  contributions.  I  am  glad  to  respond  to  it  with 
all  my  heart,  so  far  as  my  personal  contribution  is  concerned,  by 
promising  to  double  it.  [Applause.]  I  cannot  promise  to  double 
the  contribution  of  the  church  with  which  I  am  connected.  We 
doubled  it  last  year.  Four  times,  in  two  years,  is  perhaps  too 
much.  And  we  have  had  everything  to  do  in  our  own  city.  When 
I  went  there  we  had  not  an  institution,  educational  or  humane,  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  orphan  asylum.  We  have  had  to  build 
all  our  institutions  in  these  forty  years,  and  to  build  them  from  a 
population  which  is  new  to  the  place,  not  bound  to  the  soil, 
having  no  local  attachments.  It  has  been  hard  work.  We  have 
claims  pressing  upon  us,  also,  from  every  side  —  from  our  denom- 
inational work,  and  from  Christian  interests  and  enterprises  reach- 
ing all  over  the  country ;  and  I  cannot  say  that  we  will  make  our 
contribution  ;$8,ooo  next  year.  We  will  do  what  we  can,  and  I 
am  sure  there  will  be  a  good  many  who  will  be  entirely  ready  to 
double  their  gifts.  But,  my  dear  friends,  do  not  let  any  feeling  of 
despondency  come  into  our  hearts  because  we  have  not  had  such 
large  pecuniary  responses  as  we  perhaps  expected  here.  The 
Board,  in  its  wisdom  —  which  I  never  questioned  except  once, 
and  that  was  last  year  —  ruled  out  honorary  members  from  the 
invitation  to  these  meetings.  Well,  perhaps  it  was  necessary ;  I 
do  not  judge  about  that.  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it  myself,  one 
way  or  the  other.  But  let  us  distinctly  understand  that  if  we  rule 
out  the  honorary  members  from  cheerful  and  cordial  hospitality 
on  these  occasions,  we  lose  the  moral  power  of  these  meetings. 
[Applause.]  We  do  not  reach  out  into  all  the  small  parishes  of 
the  country,  as  we  used  to,  to  stimulate  faith,  and  to  inspire  to 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT   CLEVELAND.  2 7 

noble  work ;  and  I  hope,  for  myself,  though  I  have  very  little  voice 
in  the  administration  of  this*  institution  [laughter],  that  by  and  by 
the  time  will  come  when  we  shall  have  them  again,  and  when 
appeals  like  these  which  our  dear  brethren,  the  secretaries  and 
others,  have  made  will  come,  not  merely  to  us,  who  are  converted 
ahready  on  this  subject  and  do  not  need  to  have  any  quickening 
perhaps,  in  the  impulse  of  our  hearts,  but  to  all,  representing  all 
the  churches  everywhere.     Let  us  bring  that  back,  if  we  can. 

But,  at  any  rate,  let  us  not  be  discouraged.  Why,  I  remember 
that  in  the  old  time  a  debt  of  twenty  or  thirty  or  forty  thousand 
dollars  always  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  normal  condition  of  the 
treasury  of  the  American  Board.  [Laughter.]  It  was  so  at  Bos- 
ton, and  it  was  preeminently  so  at  Worcester.  And,  by  the  way, 
there  came  to  us  a  great  donation  at  Worcester,  or  soon  after  — 
forty  or  fifty  thousand  dollars  —  the  result  of  which  was  to  dry  up 
widely  the  small  sources  of  income  from  the  scattered  churches, 
who  thought  the  Board  was  now  so  rich  that  it  did  not  need  any 
help ;  and  the  result  was  a  debt  larger  than  the  one  that  had 
gone  before  !  Here  at  Cleveland,  in  1861,  when  there  did  not 
seem  to  be  any  money  in  the  country  for  any  purpose,  except 
national  preservation,  we  had  a  debt  of  nearly  $30,000.  I  am 
not  going  to  be  worried,  therefore,  if  these  brethren  go  on  and 
come  out  at  the  end  of  the  year  with  a  debt  of  $100,000.  I  do 
not  want  them  to,  but  at  the  same  time,  I  should  not  be  distressed 
if  they  did.  Debt !  Many  a  man  has  grown  rich  by  the  exertion 
to  which  he  was  prompted  in  order  to  relieve  himself  from  pe- 
cuniary indebtedness.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  in- 
debtedness of  commercial  Christendom  was  the  secret  of  its 
prosperity.  If  men  had  large  resources,  permanently  invested, 
and  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  cut  coupons  as  they  came  due,  they 
would  grow  lazy,  and  rust,  as  the  railroads  do  sometimes.  An 
engineer  said,  you  know,  that  he  left  his  railroad  because  there 
was  nothing  of  it  left  except  the  right  of  way  and  two  streaks  of 
rust !  It  might  be  so  with  us.  Let  us  not  be  discouraged.  We 
are  going  to  carry  on  this  work,  and  to  carry  it  on  with  more 
vigor,  more  power,  wider  operation,  and  grander  success  than 
ever  before.     [Applause.]     Let  us  have  faith  !     Suppose  a  man 


28  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT   CLEVELAND. 

shows  to  me  a  horseshoe,  and  then  points  to  a  pond,  and  says,^ 
"  If  you  throw  that  horseshoe  into  the  pond,  it  will  sink,  won't 
it?"  "Yes,  iron  is  heavier  than  water,"  "Well,  how  are  you 
then  going  to  build  a  steamship  all  of  iron  and  make  that  float  ? 
No,  build  your  steamship  and  sail  it  on  dry  land."  Well,  there  is 
not  much  profit  in  that  kind  of  experiment.  Build  your  ship, 
mould  its  lines  aright,  and  then  trust  it  to  the  water  and  see  how 
it  floats,  light  as  a  duck,  mightier  than  any  of  these  steam-trains 
that  are  hurrying  through  your  city  hour  by  hour.  It  is  because 
of  the  air  within,  which  holds  it  up.  So  I  say  about  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  Frame  your  policy,  lay  out  your  plans ;  do  it  con- 
siderately, prudently,  wisely,  but  do  it  with  absolute  confidence 
and  faith.  Then  let  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is 
within  it,  lift  it  on  the  waves,  and  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
which  is  in  it  will  carry  it  on  its  triumphant  course  over  the  ocean 
to  all  shores.     [Applause.] 

Now,  Brethren,  I  did  not  mean  to  say  five  words  where  I  have 
said  fifty.  I  believe  I  have  spoken  more  words,  written  or 
spontaneous,  in  this  city  of  Cleveland  than  ever  in  any  other  city 
of  the  world  except  Brooklyn,  New  York,  and  Boston.  I  will  not 
detain  you  longer,  but  do  let  us  all  be  courageous,  and  let  us 
sing  the  songs  of  victory  as  we  journey  toward  the  celestial  Jeru- 
salem. If  the  end  on  earth  is  coming  to  us  soon,  as  to  some  of 
us  it  certainly  is,  and  as  it  will  to  all  before  many  years,  let  us 
remember  that  the  darkness  of  Death  to  the  believing  disciple  is 
just  the  breaking  of  the  immortal  Morning.  I  have  thanked  you 
on  behalf  of  the  Board.  I  wish  to  thank  you,  especially,  on  be- 
half of  the  secretaries  and  the  others  associated  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Board,  and  on  my  own  behalf,  for  the  most  generous 
hospitality  which  we  have  received,  and  for  the  aid  and  succor 
which  have  been  given  to  us  in  all  our  work  here  by  the  people 
and  the  pastors  of  Cleveland.  You  undertook,  I  think,  some 
years  ago,  to  annex  a  town  lying  on  the  west  of  the  Cuyahoga 
River,  which  is  called  Brooklyn.  I  believe  you  did  not  succeed. 
The  Brooklyn  in  which  I  live  is  rather  too  big,  as  well  as  too 
distant,  to  be  annexed,  with  its  eight  hundred  and  more  thousand 
inhabitants,  to  this  beautiful  and  advancing  city  of  Cleveland  — 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  CLEVELAND.  29 

too  big  to  be  annexed  to  anything,  probably,  though  we  some- 
times think  of  annexing  New  York  ;  but  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
who  may  stand  in  some  humble  way  as  a  representative  of  Brook- 
lyn, your  kindness  in  welcome  and  in  courteous  attention  has 
annexed  me,  in  the  spirit,  to  Cleveland  for  all  time  to  come. 
[Applause.]  So,  on  behalf  of  the  Board,  I  express  to  you  our 
most  grateful  acknowledgments  and  thanks,  and  say,  with  all  my 
heart,  God  bless  you  !     [Applause.] 


II. 

aSelatiottjSJ  of  ifforetgn  jHijSjstonjs  anD 
Commerce* 

ADDRESS  AT  THE   ANNUAL   MEETING   AT   NEW  YORK,   1889. 

WITH   CONCLUDING   ADDRESS. 


RELATIONS   OF   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 
AND   COMMERCE. 


We  are  met,  my  dear  friends,  for  the  characteristic  work  of  the 
modern  Christian  world.  It  is  not  the  formulation  of  creeds  ;  that 
was  done,  so  far  as  the  great  creeds  are  concerned,  many  centu- 
ries ago,  and  we  accept  them.  We  accept  the  Apostles'  Creed 
and  the  Nicene  Creed  as  heartily  and  fully  as  my  beloved  brother 
and  friend  of  fifty  years  since.  Bishop  Huntington,  who  is  sitting 
by  me  on  the  platform,  accepts  them  for  himself.  We  have  no 
need  to  revise,  and  we  have  little  need  to  add  to,  the  creeds  that 
were  battle-hymns  of  the  Church  in  the  time  of  its  purity,  of  its 
trial,  and  of  its  victory.  We  are  not  gathered  here,  either,  for  the 
incitement  of  crusades  to  recover  the  Holy  Land,  as  at  tiie  Coun- 
cil of  Clermont  or  the  Assembly  at  Etampes,  where  the  fiery 
eloquence  of  Bernard  set  Western  Europe  aflame.  The  only 
Jerusalem  for  which  we  chiefly  care  is  the  new  Jerusalem,  descend- 
ing out  of  Heaven  from  God  upon  the  earth.  We  are  not  here 
even  for  the  reformation  of  religion ;  as  we  are  certainly  not 
here  for  that  great  work  which  was  the  principal  aim  of  Christian 
Europe  for  centuries,  the  building  of  immense  and  magnificent 
cathedrals.  We  are  here  to  take  the  Gospel,  as  we  have  received 
it,  and  as  the  substance  of  it  shines  in  the  ancient  creeds,  to  prop- 
agate it,  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  and  to  the  extent  of  our 
reach,  throughout  the  earth,  and  to  accomplish  the  effects  which 
are  appropriate  to  it. 

These  effects  are  large  and  various,  and  unspeakably  precious. 
The  primary  and  supreme  effect  upon  which  our  attention  is  fixed 
is  the  conversion  of  individual  souls  to  the  Son  of  God.  We 
believe  that  the  Son  of  God  has  been  upon  the  earth ;  that  he 
came  as  a  Divine  person,  to  illustrate  hoHness,  to  teach  the  divine 
law,  to  make  propitiation  by  his  cross,  and  to  open  the  gates  of 


34 


RELA  TIONS   OF  FOREIGN 


Heaven  to  all  believers.  We  believe  that  to  convert  a  soul  to 
him  is  to  save  it  from  death,  and  to  hide  a  multitude  of  sins.  We 
believe  that  the  earth  has  been  luminous  with  the  presence  of  the 
Master,  that  it  has  shined  in  the  supernal  flush  of  his  miraculous 
power,  that  since  his  resurrection  it  is  nearer  to  the  heavens  than 
ever  before ;  and  our  chief  desire,  which  governs  and  limits  every 
other,  is  to  lead  men  individually  to  the  acceptance  of  this  Son  of 
God,  that  we  may  thus  glorify  him  on  the  earth,  and  that  we  may 
make  Heaven  more  populous  with  renewed  and  triumphant 
spirits.  This  is  our  first  work ;  the  work  for  which  our  mission- 
aries go  forth  —  men  and  women  the  choicest  that  we  have ;  the 
work  for  which  we  gladly  take  counsel  together,  and  for  which  we 
gladly  give  as  God  has  prospered  us,  that  these  men  and  women 
may  go  to  work  effectually  in  distant  lands. 

Men  may  call  us  fanatical  if  they  like ;  it  is  of  no  account.  We 
do  positively  believe  that  there  is,  through  Christ,  an  open  way  to 
the  Heavenly  life  ;  we  do  positively  believe  that  he  is  now  in  the 
world  by  his  Spirit,  calling  men  unto  himself ;  we  do  positively 
believe  that  the  noblest  work  any  man  or  woman  can  do  upon 
the  earth  is  to  lead  others  to  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  in 
Christ,  that  they  may  rejoice  in  a  higher  hope  on  earth,  and  in  a 
nobler  praise  and  glory  in  the  life  everlasting.  Our  deepest  feel- 
ing is  stirred,  our  highest  enthusiasm  is  moved,  by  that  sublime 
aim  of  this  institution. 

But  then,  with  that,  we  also  contemplate  effects  upon  the  world 
at  large,  and  upon  the  present  world,  in  its  physical,  political, 
governmental,  and  social  condition.  For  whatever  the  Gospel 
touches  it  lifts ;  it  lifts  communities  as  well  as  persons ;  and 
whatever  affects  individuals  affects  at  last,  and  rapidly,  the  com- 
munities which  they  form.  It  seems  to  us,  therefore,  with  refer- 
ence to  this  institution,  that  it  has  a  fair  claim  upon  the  earnest 
sympathy  of  all  who  desire  human  welfare ;  a  fair  claim  upon  the 
sympathy  and  honor  of  this  great  and  famous,  this  prosperous  and 
powerful  city,  in  which  we  are  met.  Aside  from  that,  I  do  not 
know  but  it  has  been  rather  a  misfortune  than  a  good  fortune  that 
our  assembly  has  been  surrounded  by  this  magnificent  environ- 
ment of  material  wealth  and  splendor,  amid  which  we  gather. 


MISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE. 


35 


We  come  because  summoned  by  the  tender  and  affectionate  invi- 
tation and  welcome  of  this  church.  But  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that  if  you  had  a  ruby  or  a  pearl  which  you  wished  to  keep  at 
hand  and  yet  to  conceal  from  others,  as  good  a  way  as  any  would 
be  to  set  it  in  some  angle  of  a  great,  glittering,  burnished  plaque, 
the  general  sheen  of  which  would  contrast  and  conceal  the  modest 
though  lovely  luster  of  the  gem.  In  somewhat  the  same  way  a  con- 
vocation for  the  consideration  of  missionary  themes,  and  the  rein- 
forcement of  missionary  enthusiasm,  in  this  magnificent  metropolis 
of  the  New  World,  seems  to  be  directly  at  hand,  and  yet  to  be 
largely  hidden  from  public  observation.  We  are  here  in  a  center 
of  the  world's  wealth ;  in  a  city  whose  name  is  famous  wherever 
the  United  States  are  known  on  the  earth.  Many  of  us,  who  have 
been  in  foreign  lands,  have  rejoiced  to  notice  that  wheresoever  we 
went  the  name  of  the  city  of  New  York  was  known  and  honored ; 
and  if  we  quoted  it  as  the  place  of  our  residence  it  was  almost  a 
passport  for  us  to  confidence  and  protection. 

We  are  here  in  this  city,  full  of  splendor,  full  of  power,  rich  in 
fame,  where  the  tide  of  prosperity  annually  runs  up  the  island 
twenty  blocks  a  year,  with  the  crests  of  its  wave  in  marble  and 
freestone  mansions  ten  stories  high.  [Applause.]  In  compari- 
son, this  assembly  of  ours  seems  a  small  thing.  New  York  has 
seen  many  great,  splendid,  and  fascinating  spectacles,  none  more 
brilliant  or  imposing  than  that  of  last  April,  when  here  was  cele- 
brated the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  inauguration  of 
Washington  as  President  of  the  United  States ;  when  marching 
armies,  and  industrial  processions  in  vast  array,  testified  the  uni- 
versal feeling  of  reverence  for  him,  and  of  joy  at  what  was  then 
done ;  and  a  crowd  of  admiring  spectators  looked  on  from  all  the 
world.  New  York  has  seen  many  spectacles,  if  not  all  as  brilliant 
as  that,  of  the  same  order.  In  comparison,  of  course,  our  assem- 
bly seems  an  almost  insignificant  thing.  We  are  not  a  multitude, 
although  we  represent  a  multitude  distributed  over  the  country  from 
the  river  of  the  Holy  Cross  to  the  Rio  Grande,  from  the  Lakes  to 
the  Gulf,  from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  Golden  Gate.  Our  aggre- 
gate annual  revenue  is  less  than  the  annual  revenue  of  many  indi- 
viduals in  this  city.     Our  capitalized  wealth  is  far  less  than  the 


36  RELATIONS   OF  FOREIGN 

capitalized  property  of  multitudes  in  this  city.  Our  aim  seems  to 
many  to  be  a  kind  of  nebulous  and  theoretical  aim,  in  comparison 
with  the  solid,  strenuous,  stubborn,  practical  purpose  to  increase 
riches  and  to  enjoy  them,  by  which  purpose  this  city  has  been 
largely  built,  and  with  which  it  is  largely  pervaded.  And  we  are 
here  only  for  a  few  days.  To-morrow  we  shall  disperse ;  and  it 
may  well  seem  a  natural  thing  that  when  we  have  gone  on  the 
trains  bearing  us  away,  our  having  been  here  will  be  instantly  and 
utterly  forgotten,  or  remembered  only  as  a  most  unimportant  inci- 
dent in  the  unparalleled  experience  of  this  great  metropolis  of  the 
Western  World.  So,  too,  the  missionary  work,  by  which  we  are 
convened  and  to  which  we  give  our  counsel  and  thought  and  plan, 
seems  to  many  a  most  inconsiderable  thing  —  a  mere  castle  in  the 
air,  a  mere  passing  mist  of  enthusiasm,  something  with  which  men 
of  the  world  need  not  trouble  themselves  at  all. 

Now,  gentlemen  and  friends,  let  us  recognize  the  fact  that  that 
which  is  comparatively  small  in  appearance  may  be  great  in  value 
and  effect.  The  importance  of  anything  is  to  be  measured  by  its 
nature,  not  by  its  bulk ;  and  it  has  been  true  in  the  history  of  the 
world  that  the  greatest  things  have  often  come  —  usually  come,  I 
might  say  —  "without  observation."  It  seemed  a  small  thing 
when  our  fathers,  here  and  at  Plymouth,  settled  themselves  to  sub- 
due, to  hold,  to  occupy  and  renew  this  rugged  and  unknown  conti- 
nent ;  and  yet,  though  their  weakness  was  their  protection,  though 
they  were  too  feeble  to  be  feared  in  Europe,  and  almost  too  few 
to  be  counted,  their  work  has  changed  the  course  and  movement 
of  civilization  more  than  the  work  of  any  men  of  their  time,  more 
than  the  work  of  all  the  statesmen  of  the  last  two  hundred  years 
in  Europe  itself ;  and  John  Winthrop  and  William  Bradford  are 
greater  powers  in  Europe  to-day  than  Talleyrand  and  Metternich. 
Small  in  appearance  indeed,  but  great  in  effect ! 

It  seemed  a  very  small  thing  when  the  monks  and  the  men  who 
sympathized  with  them  as  reformers,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
faced  Europe,  and  when  the  contemptuous  characterization  of  the 
Reformation  by  the  elegant,  careless,  and  skeptical  pontiff  was 
that  it  was  "  a  quarrel  among  some  monks,  and  Brother  Luther 
appeared  to  be  a  man  of  parts."     That  was  the  verdict  of  the 


MISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE. 


37 


pontiff  of  the  time,  whose  successor  is  now  looking  out  from  the 
Vatican  windows  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  safe  retreat  for  him- 
self in  continental  Europe.  [Applause.]  Great  in  effect,  though  not 
great  in  appearance  !  How  ridiculous  a  thing  it  seemed  that  the 
early  Christians  should  face  the  Roman  Empire,  determined  to 
remold  and  reconstruct  it,  putting  Scriptures  against  swords,  put- 
ting narratives  and  letters  against  marshaled  legions,  putting  oral 
and  sacramental  teaching  against  the  fiercest  and  haughtiest 
power  that  the  world  had  known  !  But  by  their  work  the  result 
accomphshed  created  Christendom,  changed  the  courses  of  his- 
tory, and  changed  the  face  of  the  earth.  This  Republic  is  builded 
to-day,  and  every  home  of  ours  is  builded  to-day,  on  the  founda- 
tions laid  in  dust  and  in  blood  by  the  faith  and  fortitude,  and  the 
heroic  consecration,  of  those  unnamed  Christian  martyrs  and 
teachers  of  the  earliest  time.  [Applause.]  Men  might  laugh  at 
their  work  then ;  but  he  who  laughs  at  it  now  might  as  well  laugh 
at  the  shining  constellations  in  the  heavens.     [Applause.] 

So  it  may  be  that  our  missionary  work —  though  I  will  not  put  it 
alongside  of  either  of  these  great  historic  and  prolific  movements, 
if  you  prefer  that  I  should  not  —  may  have  a  power  in  it  that  is  to 
reach  forward  into  future  centuries  :  a  power  which  even  this 
splendid,  populous,  rich,  and  renowned  metropolis  may  well  rec- 
ognize and  honor,  and  for  which  it  may  well  give  thanks. 

Certainly  our  aim  is  a  noble  one.  We  are  not  trying  to  extend 
a  sect ;  we  are  not  trying  merely  to  exert  an  influence  on  individ- 
uals, though,  as  I  have  said,  the  influence  on  individual  souls  is 
primary  and  supreme  in  our  contemplation ;  but  we  are  aiming  to 
renew  the  moral  life  of  mankind.  Nothing  less  than  that  is  the 
aim  which  we  propose  :  to  renew,  as  far  as  we  can  reach  it,  the 
moral  life  of  mankind,  so  making  politics  possible,  abolishing 
tyranny,  banishing  barbarism,  calling  a  halt  to  the  march  of 
oppression,  and  making  the  peoples  competent  and  determined  to 
form  their  own  institutions  and  manage  their  own  affairs.  We  try 
to  secure  the  intellectual  advancement  and  elevation  of  mankind, 
especially,  through  the  power  of  the  Bible,  the  most  educating 
book  of  the  world.  It  touches  the  child  in  the  nursery,  and  the 
philosopher  in  the  university;   it  reaches   the   mechanic  in  his 


38  RELATIONS   OF  FOREIGN 

labor,  and  the  aged  in  their  retirement  and  in  the  dying  hour. 
We  mean  by  the  Bible  to  make  the  truth  of  God  so  present  to  the 
minds  of  men  that  the  intellectual  level  of  the  race  will  be  lifted. 
We  mean  to  make  social  life  harmonious  and  happy.  We  mean 
to  make  all  prosperity  more  legitimate,  and  more  abundant,  than 
it  has  ever  been  before  or  will  be  again,  except  as  the  power  of 
the  Gospel  is  beneath  and  behind  it. 

This  is  our  aim,  as  I  say ;  and  I  put  it  to  you  if  the  declaration 
is  not  a  just  one,  that  this  superb  metropolis,  with  all  its  power 
and  all  its  fame,  which  has  sympathized  so  keenly,  so  eagerly,  and 
so  generously,  with  every  people  of  the  world  harassed  and  hun- 
ger-smitten, oppressed  by  tyranny,  stricken  by  calamity  —  that 
this  city  should  sympathize  with  us  in  this  majestic  aim,  and 
should  count  it  a  joy  and  an  honor  to  take  part  with  us,  and  with 
other  societies  working  in  harmony  with  us,  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  design  so  magnificent  and  so  divine.     [Applause.] 

Yes,  our  work  assists  all  the  time  the  commerce  of  which  this 
city  is  the  superb  and  opulent  seat.  This  is  not  our  first  work,  as 
I  have  said ;  but  it  is  a  work  which  goes  on  with  the  propagation 
of  the  Gospel  over  all  the  earth.  For  commerce  and  the  Gospel 
are  in  harmony  in  this,  at  least,  that  the  aim  of  each  is  cosmical, 
is  earth-embracing ;  and,  it  may  be  said  of  commerce,  as  of  the 
wisdom  of  God,  that  she  "  layeth  the  beams  of  her  chambers  in 
the  waters,  and  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind."  There  is 
no  tribe  so  recent  or  so  ancient,  no  tribe  so  remote  or  so 
degraded,  that  the  Gospel  does  not  seek  it,  or  that  commerce 
will  not  gladly  reach  out  far  for  access  to  it.  They  go  together. 
The  home  of  commerce  is  on  the  liquid  bands  that  separate  yet 
unite  and  encompass  the  continents  ;  the  horizon  of  commerce  is 
the  rim  of  the  planet  and  nothing  less ;  and  so  commerce  and 
Christianity  go  together,  Christianity  helping  commerce.  Not 
that  our  missionaries  go  out  for  that  purpose  —  they  do  not  barter 
life  for  gold.  They  give  life  freely,  that  men  whom  they  did  not 
know,  of  another  language  and  another  race,  may  by  and  by  wear 
the  immortal  crown.  But  wherever  their  errand  is,  and  wherever 
their  teaching  is  felt,  there  the  way  is  opened  for  a  widening  com- 
merce.    Intensity  of  conviction  carries  them  where  the  commer- 


MISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE.  39 

cial  agent  gladly  follows,  but  would  not  lead.  Who  opened 
Africa,  of  which  we  heard  this  morning  ?  Mofifat  and  Livingstone, 
Christian  missionaries.  Who  opened  the  interior  of  China.? 
Christian  missionaries.  Who  were  first  in  New  Guinea  and  New 
Zealand,  in  the  Navigator  Islands,  now  famous  in  the  world  as 
Samoa,  in  the  cannibal  islands  of  the  Pacific  where  shipwrecked 
crews  were  slaughtered  and  eaten?  Everywhere  Christian  mis- 
sionaries ;  and  the  commercial  agent  follows  after. 

Christian  missions  make  men  richer,  wherever  they  get  estab- 
lished. I  have  wondered  many  times  whether  Paul  might  not 
have  had  some  such  thought  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote  to  the 
Corinthians  that  he  and  his  friends  and  fellow  disciples  were 
"  poor,  yet  making  many  rich."  No  doubt  he  intended  spiritual 
riches,  primarily  and  supremely,  as  we  do ;  but  the  effect  of  the 
Gospel  preached  at  Corinth  and  at  Rome,  and  elsewhere,  has 
always  been  to  make  men  richer,  "  having  the  promise  of  the  life 
that  now  is  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come."  It  honors  indus- 
try —  the  very  hand  of  the  Master  which  held  the  power  of 
miracle  having  held  as  well  the  hammer  and  the  saw,  A  tent- 
maker  was  his  chief  apostle ;  and  the  very  hand  that  subscribed 
the  great  epistles  which  the  Spirit  had  dictated  was  occupied  in 
weaving  coarse  tent-cloth.  Labor  was  honored  by  the  Christian 
disciple,  and  is  honored  by  the  Gospel.  One  of  the  most  touch- 
ing things  in  the  Catacombs  is  to  find  the  poor  implements  of  the 
martyrs  whose  blood  and  bones  are  there,  set  aside  and  conse- 
crated as  memorials  of  those  who  wrought  in  faith  and  died  in 
triumph.  Economy  is  inculcated  by  the  Gospel ;  and  the  great- 
est lesson  of  economy  ever  taught  in  the  world  was  not  taught  by 
any  poUtical  economist,  but  by  the  Master,  when  he  said,  after  the 
miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  "  Gather  up  the  fragments  that 
nothing  be  lost."  With  the  power  of  omnipotence  to  create 
harvests  at  a  word,  he  would  "gather  up  the  fragments,  that 
nothing  be  lost ! "  The  Christian  world  has  taken  a  lesson  of 
economy  from  that  which  it  will  never  forget.  All  savage  passion 
subdued,  domestic  desire  and  aspiration  kindled,  power  invigor- 
ated, hope  lifted,  the  consciousness  of  personal  right  and  personal 
privilege  exalted,  as  men  become  aware  of  a  new  relationship  to 


40  RELATIONS   OF  FOREIGN 

the  vast  and  shining  universe  around  them  —  these  are  every\vhere 
the  helpers  of  prosperity.  The  world  is  becoming  richer  all  the 
time,  in  Christian  nations  and  in  heathen  nations  where  the  Gos- 
pel goes,  while  the  needs  of  men  become  more  urgent,  and  the 
demand  for  the  supply  of  those  needs  is  more  instant  and 
imperative. 

I  believe  that  it  was  Mrs.  Leeks  who  said  to  Mrs.  Aleshine,  in 
that  pleasant  story  of  the  casting  away  of  those  two  estimable 
Pennsylvania  women,  that  the  missionaries  would  have  to  take  the 
heathen  a  good  many  times  all  the  way  through  from  Genesis  to 
Revelation  before  they  could  persuade  them  to  have  force-pumps 
in  their  kitchens,  and  spring-mattresses  on  their  beds.  I  suppose 
that  is  true.  It  does  take  a  good  many  times  and  tasks  of  patient 
teaching.  But  even  those  inventions  have  to  come  at  last,  because 
men  desire  more  comfort,  better  instruments,  a  larger  outlook, 
when  the  Gospel  has  entered  into  the  mind  and  illumined  it,  has 
entered  into  the  heart,  and  purified  and  reinforced  it. 

So  Christianity  helps  commerce  everywhere,  and  Christianity 
has  the  right  to  require  that  commerce  shall  help  it  [applause] 
and  shall  not  hinder  it.  Christianity  has  the  right  to  demand 
that  the  agents  of  commerce  on  foreign  shores  shall  not  be  men 
of  loose  life,  vicious  manners,  and  an  infidel  spirit ;  and  Christian- 
ity has  certainly  the  right  to  require  that  commerce  shall  not 
debase  the  nations  which  it  is  trying  to  lift  [applause],  by  helping 
the  opium  traffic  in  China,  and  by  pouring  millions  of  gallons  of 
the  vilest  liquors  into  Africa.  [Loud  applause.]  Every  dollar 
won  by  a  traffic  of  that  kind  ought  to  burn  in  a  man's  hand  like  a 
bit  of  the  infernal  asphalt  which  is  the  pavement  of  Hell !  [Loud 
applause.]  Riches  so  acquired  simply  reek  with  the  blood  of 
immortal  souls  ;  and  Christianity  would  be  false  to  its  trust  if  it 
did  not  remonstrate  and  condemn  ;  and  civilization  and  commerce 
are  false  to  their  trust  if  they  do  not,  in  this,  sympathize  with  the 
Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ. 

Now,  men  say  our  work  is  a  great  one.  Of  course  it  is.  It  is 
vast.  It  reaches  over  all  the  earth.  But  observe,  my  friends, 
we  have  the  most  powerful  instruments  of  the  world  to  work  with 
—  the  instrument  of  the  truth  as  taught  by  living  lips,  as  shot 


MISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE. 


41 


forth  in  imperial  and  magnetic  impression  from  living  hearts.  It 
ought  to  be  by  this  time  an  unfamiliar  sneer  in  the  world  —  that 
old  sneer  of  the  Roman  procurator,  "  What  is  truth?  —  a  breath 
in  the  air,  somethmg  that  one  rush  of  the  legions  will  scatter  to 
the  wind,  a  mere  imagination  of  some  enthusiastic  and  speculative 
spirit."  Yet  men  talk  in  just  that  way  up  to  this  day.  I  remem- 
ber to  have  read  that  when  Mr.  Petigru,  who  was  a  very  ardent 
and  distinguished  churchman,  was  importuning  a  judge  in  a  court 
at  the  South,  to  adjourn  the  court  over  Good  Friday,  the  judge, 
who  was  a  stiff  and  steadfast  Presbyterian,  said  :  "  No,  Mr,  Petigru, 
why  should  I  adjourn  the  court  over  Good  Friday?"  "  Why,"  he 
replied,  "  it  is  the  day  that  commemorates  the  death  of  our  Lord." 
"  No,"  said  the  judge,  "  the  court  will  sit  to-morrow  "  (which  was 
Good  Friday).  "Well,"  said  Mr.  Petigru,  "I  admit  that 
your  honor  has  one  ancient  precedent.  Pontius  Pilate  held  court 
on  Good  Friday."  [Laughter.]  There  are  a  great  many  people 
now  who  hold,  exactly  as  Pontius  Pilate  did,  that  truth  is  nothing 
but  a  vagary,  a  fancy,  a  breath  in  the  air.  My  friends,  do  not  let 
us  be  foolish  !  Truth  is  the  one  thing  that  changes  not,  and 
never  decays.  It  represents  the  facts  of  the  spiritual  universe, — 
God  and  the  soul,  the  judgment  and  the  great  Hereafter,  the  cross 
of  Christ  and  the  resurrection,  and  the  life  everlasting ;  and  some- 
how or  other  it  has  certainly  come  to  pass  that  this  truth  has 
taken  the  most  barbarous  and  savage  tribes  of  men  and  subdued 
them,  to  their  well  being  and  to  God's  glorj'.  It  took  our  savage 
ancestors,  and  built  the  great  Christian  commonwealths  of  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States.  It  has  taken  savage  men  every- 
where, and  turned  cannibals  into  Christians,  and  lifted  the  lowest 
races  toward  higher  levels.  The  truth  of  God  is  the  inspiration 
of  all  that  is  gracious  and  lovely,  in  personal  character  and  in 
domestic  Hfe.  There  is  not  a  flower  in  your  garden,  there  is  not 
a  blossoming  vine  on  the  side  of  your  house,  that  does  not  depend 
upon  the  sun,  and  the  majestic  constellations ;  and  there  is  not  a 
grace  in  any  human  character,  of  wife,  or  child,  of  parent,  or  of 
friend,  that  does  not  draw  its  life  and  inspiration  from  the  sublime 
mysteries  of  the  truth,  as  they  are  declared  to  us  in  the  Word  of 
God. 


42  RELATIONS    OF  FOREIGN 

It  is  at  the  basis  of  public  order  and  liberty.  When  I  hear  men 
talk  as  they  sometimes  do,  saying  in  effect  that  we  can  dispense 
with  religion,  that  material  prosperity  and  the  authority  of  jurispru- 
dence are  enough  for  us,  I  have  it  in  my  heart  to  say,  and  some- 
times on  my  lips  :  "  Well,  if  you  want  to  try  that  experiment,  then 
begin  by  taking  away  the  foundation  of  your  houses,  and  leave 
them  standing  in  the  air  !  "  Truth  is  at  the  basis  of  all  political 
freedom,  pubhc  liberty,  private  virtue,  and  the  beauty  of  private 
character ;  and  that  is  the  power  which  we  glory  in  employing. 
We  are  trying  to  make  it  articulate  in  all  languages  bf  the  earth. 
We,  and  others  working  in  the  same  line,  have  made  it  articulate 
in  300  languages  of  mankind  already,  reducing  many  of  them  to 
alphabetic  form  that  they  might  take  into  themselves  this  truth  of 
God.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies  of  parts  of  the 
Scriptures  were  circulated  in  China  alone  last  year.  We  mean  to 
carry  on  the  work  until  every  family  on  the  earth  is  as  familiar  as 
we  have  been  since  the  first  consciousness  of  life,  with  the  story 
of  the  evangelists,  with  the  arguments  of  the  apostles,  with  the 
prophecies  of  old,  and  with  the  final  prediction  which  flashes  its 
glory  on  the  world  from  the  apocalypse,  closing  and  consummat- 
ing the  Scripture.     [Applause.] 

Then  we  have  had  great  success.  Men  do  not  see  that  always, 
or  believe  it.  They  say  about  this  American  Board,  sometimes, 
that  there  are  in  it  all  kinds  of  plots  and  plans  and  engineerings. 
My  dear  friends,  let  us  settle  this  in  our  minds  that  this  Board, 
eighty  years  old,  was  never  so  strong,  and  never  more  united,  than 
it  is  at  this  hour  [great  applause]  and  on  this  platform.  [Re- 
newed applause.]  I  know  it  was  said  some  years  ago  that  one  of 
our  most  popular  novelists  —  a  man  whose  pages  I  always  read 
with  pleasure  when  they  come  in  my  way  —  had  become  a 
socialist ;  and  somebody  replied,  "  Well,  there  is  no  reason  for 
fear  in  that,  for  he  never  was  able  to  construct  a  plot,  or  to 
carry  one  out,  in  any  of  his  books."  [Laughter.]  Now  it  is  per- 
fectly true  of  this  Board  that  there  are  no  members  in  it  who  are 
able  to  construct  or  to  carry  out  plans  or  plots.  We  differ  among 
ourselves  sometimes,  but  we  do  it  with  the  utmost  good  nature, 
and  with  the  sincerest  mutual  Christian  respect  and  esteem ;  and 


MISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE.  43 

we  are  going  to  have  $800,000  instead  of  $650,000  for  the  rev- 
enue of  this  Board.  [Loud  applause.]  We  have  had  great 
success  in  all  our  work.  Why,  think  of  it !  Eighty  years  ago  this 
Board  was  formed.  The  whole  earth  was  shut  against  it.  Our 
earliest  missionaries  were  repelled  from  India,  you  remember,  not 
by  Hindus,  not  by  Brahmins,  but  by  the  English  officials,  bap- 
tized in  Christian  households,  trained  in  Christian  churches, 
going  out  under  a  Christian  government,  and  yet  so  fearful  con- 
cerning their  political  ascendancy  in  India  that  they  would 
not  allow  American  Christian  missionaries  to  land  on  the  Indian 
shores.  That  was  not  quite  eighty  years  ago.  Now  the  whole 
world  is  open,  except,  they  say,  Turkestan,  I  don't  know  ex- 
actly where  that  is  —  probably  out  West  somewhere  !  [Laugh- 
ter.] 

There  were  300  converts,  on  the  outside  estim.ate,  from  heathen- 
dom when  this  Board  was  started ;  now  there  are  3,000,000,  and 
the  number  is  increasing  with  a  rapidity  far  surpassing  the  increase 
of  the  native  populations.  [Applause.]  More  copies  of  the 
Scripture  went  into  circulation  last  year  than  were  in  existence,  in 
all  the  world,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  That  looks  like 
success  —  success  for  the  past,  a  reward  ;  success  for  the  future,  a 
prophecy.  Meantime  the  missionary  spirit  is  widening.  Two 
hundred  missionary  societies  are  engaged  in  the  work,  or  nearly 
that ;  and  the  time  is  coming  when  every  church  and  every 
Christian  will  have  a  practical  part  and  share  in,  and  an  enthusi- 
astic devotion  to,  this  great  work. 

Then  we  have  the  supreme  power  of  the  Universe  on  our  side, 
with  us  and  for  us.  Any  man  who  can  see  the  intersecting  lines 
of  the  avenues  on  this  island  can  see  the  lines  of  providence 
converging  on  one  result  —  the  Word  of  God  universal  in  the 
world  !  All  the  courses  of  history  for  the  last  five  hundred  years 
bear  on  that  fact.  The  discovery  of  this  continent,  the  invention 
of  the  movable  type,  the  telescope  interpreting .  the  universe,  the 
colonization  of  this  country  from  Protestant  lands,  our  free 
republic,  our  free  Christianity  —  everything  bears  on  this  one 
result,  the  Word  of  God,  given  to  us,  distributed  universally  in  the 
world,  for  his  glory,  for  the  welfare  of  men,  for  the  lifting  of  the 


44  RELATIONS   OF  FOREIGN 

race,  for  the  purifying  of  the  earth  in  preparation  for  the  coming 
of  its  heavenly  Bridegroom.  This  is  the  logic  of  events.  This  is 
the  secret  of  history,  the  nemesis  of  nations  —  every  nation  that 
stands  against  it  going  down  like  a  rolling  thing  before  the  whirl- 
wind. All  forces  are  marching  toward  that  result  —  a  result  as 
sure  as  the  life  of  God,  as  the  solidity  of  the  globe  itself  on  which 
we  stand.  We  have  this  power  working  with  us  and  for  us,  giving 
portents  and  predictions  already,  in  the  flushing  orient  sky,  of  the 
rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  which  is  to  irradiate  and  illu- 
minate the  world. 

Our  country  has  done  much  for  mankind  in  the  hundred  years 
of  its  history,  celebrated  last  April ;  but  it  has  put  no  single  or 
combined  and  accumulating  force  into  the  development  of  a  pure 
civilization,  into  the  advancing  prosperity  of  mankind,  from  the 
beginning  until  now,  which  is  comparable  to  the  force  that  it  has 
put  into  the  world-life  through  the  Christian  missions  of  the 
various  communions  uniting  in  this  sublimest  enterprise,  and 
going  forth  with  the  New  Testament  in  their  hands  and  the  love 
of  God  in  their  hearts,  and  with  the  hope  of  glory  shining  on  their 
faces,  to  enlighten  the  nations.     [Applause.] 

I  shall  not  see  it ;  many  of  you  will  not  see  it ;  it  may  be  that 
none  of  us  will  see  it ;  but  I  believe  that  the  child  is  now  born 
who  will  see  the  time  when  commerce  and  Christianity,  equally 
earth-embracing  in  their  aims,  and  advancing  in  majestic  harmony, 
shall  possess  the  whole  earth ;  when  the  ships  of  Tarshish  shall  be 
foremost,  as  in  the  prophetic  vision,  in  bringing  their  sons 
from  afar,  their  silver  and  their  gold  with  them,  to  the  city  of  the 
Lord  our  God ;  when  "  Hohness  to  the  Lord  "  shall  be  upon  all 
the  bells  of  those  swift  horses  of  the  modern  commerce  whose 
race-course  is  the  ocean,  which  go  trampling  the  waves  under 
their  iron  feet ;  when  the  revolving  wheels  on  every  railway  and  of 
every  steamship  shall  have  the  living  spirit  of  truth  and  of  grace 
within  them ;  when  the  trumpets  of  commerce,  which  are  waken- 
ing the  world  on  every  barbaric  shore  to  new  ideas,  to  new  aspira- 
tions after  wealth  and  culture  and  liberty  and  law,  shall  carry  to 
all  those  tribes  the  message  of  the  angel  over  Bethlehem ;  shall 
carry  the  mighty  story  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  world ;  shall  carry 


AIISSIONS  AND    COMMERCE.  45 

the  great  argument  of  the  Pauhne  epistles ;  shall  carry  the  final 
prophecy  of  the  New  Jerusalem  descending  out  of  Heaven  from 
God,  and  becoming  on  the  earth  a  tabernacle  in  which  God  shall 
dwell  with  men.  God  hasten  it  in  his  time  ;  and  unto  him  be  all 
the  praise  !     [Prolonged  applause.] 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS   AT   NEW  YORK. 


Friends  and  Brethren,  of  these  Inviting  and  Welcoming  Churches: 
If  this  were  a  personal  farewell  on  my  part,  I  should  feel  that 
I  was  saying  good-by  to  my  own  church,  and  to  the  friends  who 
have  been  nearest  to  me  for  more  than  forty  years.  For  this 
church  has  been  almost  as  near  and  dear  to  my  heart  as  my  own, 
ever  since  the  time  when  your  pastor,  then  the  Rev,  Dr.  Thomp- 
son, gave  to  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  on  the  evening  on 
which  I  was  installed  pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims.  He 
has  passed  away ;  but,  the  one  who  has  followed  him  has  been 
simply  giving  me  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  a  right  hand  of 
love  and  wisdom  and  of  power,  from  that  day  to  the  present, 
whenever  I  have  met  him.  He  was  brought  here  by  me  —  my 
weakness  being  the  cause  of  your  gain.  For  after  the  meeting  of 
the  Board  nineteen  years  ago  in  Brooklyn,  I  was  so  nervously 
overworked  —  not  in  consequence  of  that  only,  or  chiefly  —  that 
it  became  necessary  for  me  to  take  a  vacation  and  go  to  Europe. 
My  people  are  a  shrewd  people ;  New  England  in  origin,  very 
many  of  them,  trained  somewhat  in  the  Yankee  wisdom ;  and 
they  determined  that,  as  their  pastor  was  now  to  be  away  for  a 
year,  they  would,  at  any  rate,  during  that  time  indulge  themselves 
in  the  luxury  of  some  good  preaching.  [Laughter.]  So  they 
sent  over  to  Liverpool,  and  brought  back  our  dear  brother,  Dr. 
Taylor.  He  was  not  so  much  to  bring,  in  the  body,  at  that  time 
[laughter]  ;  and  there  happened  to  be  no  import  tax  on  minis- 
ters. [Laughter.]  If  the  Tabernacle  church  were  obliged  to 
pay  an  ad-valorem  duty  on  him  to-day,  they  would  have  to  mort- 
gage their  property.  [Laughter.]  But  he  came ;  and  when  Dr. 
Thompson  left,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  the  first  desire 
of  this  church  was  toward  this  young  Dr.  Taylor  of  whom  they 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  NEW   YORK.  47 

had  heard  such  glowing  accounts  from  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims, 
to  which  he  had  been  ministering  for  several  months.  So  he  came 
here ;  and  I  have  never  ceased,  from  that  day  to  this,  to  thank 
God  for  his  coming,  and  for  that  temporary  absence  of  mine  from 
my  own  pulpit  which  was  the  occasion  of  his  coming.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Virgin  and  his  church  have  been,  also,  as  near  to 
my  heart  as  any  pastor  or  any  congregation  of  the  city  of  Brook- 
lyn, in  which  I  live.  I  had  had  some  hand  in  the  establishment  of 
that  church,  a  good  many  years  ago ;  and  I  have  never  ceased  to 
rejoice,  since  he  came  into  its  pulpit,  in  the  eloquence  of  which 
he  has  shown  you  an  example  this  morning,  in  the  brotherly 
kindness  and  fidelity,  the  courage  and  fortitude  and  elastic  hope, 
with  which  he  has  prosecuted  his  mission  to  its  remarkable 
success. 

Now,  dear  brethren,  as  I  have  said,  if  I  were  saying  "  good-by  " 
in  personal  capacity  and  relations  I  should  feel  that  I  was  bidding 
adieu  to  earthly  friends  and  earthly  scenes ;  and  I  could  only  offer 
the  added  prayer  that  in  the  heavenly  life  our  mansions  —  for 
there  are  many  mansions  in  our  Father's  house  —  might  not  be 
far  distant  from  one  another. 

But  I  am  not  speaking  personally.  I  am  speaking  on  behalf  of 
this  Board,  whose  officer  I  am,  to  thank  you  for  the  magnificent 
hospitality  with  which  you  have  welcomed  and  entertained  the 
largest  meeting  of  the  corporate  members  of  the  Board  ever  held 
in  its  history,  with  a  single  exception  —  that  at  Springfield,  two 
years  ago.  One  hundred  and  thirty-one  members  of  the  Board 
have  been  present  at  this  meeting,  80  from  New  England,  and  51 
from  outside  New  England.  We  rejoice  as  a  Board  to  have  been 
permitted  to  share  the  generosity  of  these  churches  in  New  York, 
after  the  long  interval  which  has  elapsed  since  the  meeting  of  the 
Board  here,  fifty-seven  years  ago.  We  rejoice  to  have  been  per- 
mitted to  see  the  city  in  which  you  have  your  place  and  do  your 
work. 

I  do  not  know  the  statistics  of  New  York  fifty-seven  years  ago. 
I  remember  to  have  observed  in  some  documents  published  in 
the  spring  of  this  year,  giving  a  historical  summary  of  the  prog- 


48  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  NEW    YORK. 

ress  of  New  York  for  a  hundred  years,  that  a  hundred  years  ago 
there  were  but  4,200  houses  in  the  then  small  town,  most  of  them 
frame  houses,  some  of  the  more  ambitious  with  brick  fronts. 
There  was  no  Broadway  above  the  present  Astor  House,  The  street 
continued  under  the  name,  I  believe,  of  Great  George  Street. 
There  were  less  than  30,000  people  in  the  town.  It  had  to  pay  a 
city  debt  by  a  lottery.  It  had  22  churches,  and  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal churches  had  just  imported  a  minister  to  preach  to  it,  on  the 
express  condition  that  he  should  preach  in  Dutch.  That  was 
New  York  a  hundred  years  ago.  What  it  was  fifty-seven  years 
ago  I  cannot  say  particularly,  but  I  know  it  was  comparatively 
small.  Perhaps  the  public  pumps  that  used  to  stand  on  Broad- 
way had  been  removed.  Broadway  was  doubtless  an  important 
street,  not  yet  supremely  so.  Now  we  see  this  marvelous  accu- 
mulation from  all  races,  languages,  and  peoples  of  the  earth  — 
this  great  city,  a  microcosm,  in  which  every  part  of  the  world  is 
represented,  and  every  age  of  history.  We  have  in  this  city  to-day 
the  world  as  it  was  before  Christ.  We  have  the  world  of 
Christ's  time,  even  the  unbeheving  world  which  rejected  him. 
We  have  the  medieval  world  here,  in  vast  exhibition.  We  have 
the  world  of  the  Reformation,  thank  God  !  and  we  have  the  world 
of  our  own  free  Christian  civilization.  We  have  the  wildest  and 
the  fiercest  barbarism,  only  restrained  by  mandatory  law ;  and  we 
have  the  highest  Christian  cultivation.  And  while  this  magnificent 
progress  has  been  proceeding  with  such  unparalleled  rapidity, 
we  rejoice  that  the  great  interests  of  learning,  of  worship,  and  of 
charity,  have  been  proceeding  at  equal  pace  ;  in  the  grandeur  of 
their  advance  surpassing  even  this  material  progress  of  the  city. 
We  rejoice  in  the  prophecy  thus  given  that  however  rich  the  world 
may  become,  the  Gospel  is  to  have  free  course  in  it  and  will  be 
glorified ;  that  the  progress  of  Christian  ideas  and  influences,  of 
Christian  experience  and  institutions,  is  to  keep  pace  with  all  the 
secular  advance  of  mankind. 

Not  one  of  those  members  of  the  Board  who  met  here  in  1832 
remains  on  earth  to-day,  we  are  told.  The  workmen  die,  but  the 
work  goes  on.  We  need  not  go  so  far  back.  Nineteen  years 
ago,  as  I  have  said,  the  Board  met  in  Brooklyn,  our  churches 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  NEW    YORK.  49 

there  uniting  to  entertain  it.  It  was  the  memorable  year  in 
which  the  Presbyterian  congregations,  up  to  that  time  cooperating 
with  the  Board,  finally  withdrew  from  it.  It  was  a  year  of  solici- 
tude, and  great  anxiety.  Not  all  individual  contributors  with- 
drew. One  of  the  two  largest  annual  contributors  to  the  Board 
to-day  is  a  Presbyterian  elder  in  the  city  of  New  York ;  and  if 
you  wish  to  see  an  illustration  of  his  superb  public  spirit,  of  his 
elegant  taste  and  cultivated  judgment,  you  will  find  it  in  that 
lovely  statue  of  "  Charity  "  in  Union  Square.  We  have  Presbyte- 
rian contributors  and  friends,  and  shall  have,  I  hope,  as  long  as 
the  Board  continues.  But  the  Presbyterian  congregations  with- 
drew at  that  time,  and  we  felt  that  there  was  to  be  a  serious 
deficiency  in  our  treasury,  with  a  large  gap  in  our  missionary 
circle.  They  took  some  beloved  and  fruitful  missions  of  the 
Board  with  them.  The  result  was  that  they  left  us  a  debt  of 
;J2  2,000,  which  was  paid  and  extinguished.  While  our  receipts 
before,  from  the  combined  congregations,  had  been  $461,000, 
they  have  now  risen  $200,000  above  that  highest  level.  We  have 
been  stronger  ever  since,  by  reason  of  the  separation  which  came 
in  all  kindness  of  spirit,  in  all  courtesy  on  their  part  and  on  ours, 
because  they  felt  that  they  could  work  better  by  themselves. 
They  also  have  been  stronger  for  the  Master's  service.  I  think  of 
the  men  who  were  there  and  who  have  departed  —  Dr.  Skinner, 
Dr.  William  Adams,  Dr.  Cox,  Dr.  Patton,  Mr.  Barnes,  President 
Stearns,  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson,  and  many 
others  !  There  was  my  dear  friend  and  brother.  Dr.  Budington, 
who  made  on  that  occasion  one  of  the  most  eloquent  farewell 
addresses  that  ever  fell  from  human  lips,  and  who  afterward 
learned  in  his  own  experience  that  the  via  cruets  is  the  via  lucis, 
as  he  went  up  out  of  bodily  anguish  on  earth  to  the  vision  of 
the  Master,  and  the  glory  of  the  crown  ! 

Thus  the  workmen  die,  but  the  work  goes  on.  None  of  us, 
perhaps,  will  be  here  again  —  few  of  us,  certainly  —  when  this 
Board  meets  again  in  this  city  of  New  York,  with  this  Tabernacle 
congregation ;  but  the  work  will  be  advancing,  only  more  vigor- 
ously than  it  is  in  our  day,  and  advancing  through  the  expanding 
power  and  ever-increasing  harmony  and  fidelity  of  this  Board. 


50  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  NEW    YORK. 

I  was  Struck  when  that  great  industrial  procession  filled  our 
streets  last  spring,  with  a  circular  which  I  received,  sent  by  a  man 
who  probably  did  not  know  what  the  purpose  and  relations  of  the 
American  Board  were.  It  was  a  copy  of  a  circular  sent  to  all 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  was  addressed  to  me  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Board  [laughter],  which  asked  for  an 
exhibition  of  our  characteristic  products.  [Laughter.]  Well,  if 
I  could  have  arranged  a  dray,  with  a  cannibal  cooking  a  captive, 
and  then  another  dray  to  follow  it,  with  a  brother  islander  singing 
a  Christian  hymn,  accompanied  by  a  melodeon,  I  think  I  might 
have  met  the  emergency.  [Laughter.]  But  I  had  not  the  raw 
material.  [Laughter.]  We  do  not  need  exhibitions,  on  a  small 
scale,  of  the  work  of  missions.  We  see  the  characteristic  product 
of  the  work  when  we  are  gathered  here,  and  hear  these  reports 
from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  We  see  the  effect,  as  we  see  the  blue 
of  the  water,  not  in  a  bucketful,  but  in  the  great  bay.  We  see 
the  effect  as  we  see  the  glory  of  the  sunset,  on  a  panorama  that 
takes  fifty  square  miles  of  atmosphere  to  show  it.  We  see  the 
effect  all  over  the  world ;  and  the  effect  will  be  only  more  illustri- 
ous and  more  magnificent,  and  more  world- embracing,  when  the 
next  meeting  of  the  American  Board  shall  be  held  in  the  city  of 
New  York. 

The  workmen  die,  but  the  work  goes  forward  !  And  they  die, 
thank  God  !  into  the  everlasting  life,  into  the  perfect  work  which 
is  perfect  rest,  into  the  vision  of  the  Father  and  the  glory  of  the 
just ! 

Beloved,  God  bless  you  in  the  effect  of  all  this  your  kindness 
to  us,  ■  and  in  all  your  Christian  work  !  May  these  churches 
grow  as  the  lily,  in  all  beauty  and  fragrance  of  character,  and 
stretch  forth  their  roots  as  Lebanon,  in  all  power  and  might,  and 
in  an  ever-increasing  strength.  And  may  this  city  itself  be  so 
illumined  by  the  Gospel  that  nations  shall  take  new  splendor  upon 
them  from  the  irradiation  of  that  truth,  and  that  kings  shall  come 
to  the  glory  of  the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  as  revealed 
from  this  glittering  focus  of  commerce  and  of  power  upon  our 
shores  !     [Loud  applause.] 


III. 
Cl^e  i^ppottunttv  of  tl^e  mm  in  foreign 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING  AT  MINNEAPOLIS,  1890. 
WITH   CONCLUDING   ADDRESS. 


THE   OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE  WEST 
IN   FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 


My  Dear  Christian  Friends :  It  is  with  most  unfeigned  sim- 
plicity and  sincerity  of  spirit  that  I  express  my  regret  that  I  have 
not  an  address  to  give  you  this  evening  which  is  adequate  to  the 
occasion,  or  which  is  suitable  to  so  immense  and  powerful  an  audi- 
ence as  is  here  assembled.  I  had  not  anticipated  an  occasion  of 
this  kind,  but  had  supposed  it  probable  that  in  the  church  in  which 
we  have  been  holding  our  meetings  I  should  be  expected  to  make 
a  brief  address.  I  had  not  thought  of  occupying  the  evening, 
and  especially  of  occupying  it  in  so  large  a  building  as  this,  be- 
fore an  assembly  so  vast.  A  tired  man,  at  the  end  of  a  day 
of  considerable  nervous  strain,  can  hardly  be  expected  to  face 
such  an  assembly  without  some  tremor  of  the  nerves.  And  yet 
there  are  some  things  which  I  shall  be  most  glad  to  say. 

There  is  a  feeling  not  uncommonly  entertained  by  men  of  the 
world  that  the  impulse  to  missions  is  principally  speculative  and 
sentimental ;  that  it  belongs  to  the  thoughtful,  to  the  sensitive,  to 
ministers,  and  to  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  Woman's  Board ; 
but  that  it  has  comparatively  no  relation  to  men  of  general  prac- 
tical sagacity  and  success ;  and  that  therefore  we  are,  as  it  were, 
ballooning  in  aerial  heights  when  we  come  together  to  consult  for 
the  interest  and  progress  of  the  cause  of  Christian  missions,  in 
such  a  meeting  as  that  now  being  held  in  this  city. 

I  do  not  so  conceive  of  the  matter,  and  I  desire  to  suggest 
some  things  which  may  tend  to  show  that  the  work  has  its  right- 
ful claim  upon  the  attention  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  his- 
tory of  their  times,  and  in  the  progress  of  civilization  in  the  world. 

I  assume,  of  course,  that  we  are  under  the  command  of  our 
Divine  Lord ;  that  our  highest  impulses  are  to  come  from  him, 
by  his  Spirit ;  that  we  are  under  constant  and  peremptory  obliga- 


54  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

tion  to  preach  his  gospel  to  all  mankind,  wherever  mankind  can 
be  reached  by  us.  Further,  then,  it  seems  to  me  clear  that  the 
ongoing  history  of  the  world  shows  the  privilege  and  the  power 
which  belong  to  this  function  of  preaching  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

The  astronomer  calculates  the  orbit  of  a  moving  world  from 
observation  of  it  at  three  different  points.  When  he  has  its 
course  clearly  before  him,  as  it  appears  at  those  difTerent  points, 
he  can  follow  it  in  its  course  through  the  untraveled  tracks  of 
light.  Somewhat  so  we  may  follow  the  missionary  cause  in  its 
progress  in  the  world.  Start  -from  the  point  where  the  Master 
addresses  his  disciples,  just  before  his  ascension  from  the  earth ; 
going  on  from  thence,  and  from  the  immediately  subsequent 
preaching  of  the  gospel  at  Antioch  and  Ephesus  and  Corinth  and 
Rome  to  the  time  of  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  which 
empire  had  first  been  converted  to  Christ  by  the  energy  of  preach- 
ers, by  the  zeal  and  intensity  of  martyrs,  and  by  the  holy  living, 
and  the  peaceful  and  triumphant  dying,  of  those  who  were  his 
followers.  Take  that  point,  with  the  subsequent  conversion  of 
the  barbarian  tribes  who  poured  down  upon  the  empire,  shat- 
tering it,  and  commingling  among  themselves  in  dire  collision 
and  confusion,  but  who  were  led  also  to  discipleship  toward 
Christ,  and  then  go  on  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  when  for 
the  first  time  a  free  gospel  of  salvation  for  every  man  by  faith 
in  the  Son  of  God  was  prepared  to  be  preached  to  the  world. 
There  you  have  two  of  these  points.  Thence  go  on  further  to  the 
immense  missionary  developments  of  this  present  century,  in 
which  all  Christian  communions  are  interested  together,  and  the 
results  of  which  we  see  in  the  extension  of  Christian  missions 
throughout  the  earth.  There  you  have  the  three  points  from 
which  you  can  reckon  the  progress  of  Christian  missions  in  the 
world,  onward,  in  the  centuries  to  come. 

There  are  four  facts  which  suggested  themselves  to  me  as  I 
was  journeying  hither,  and  which  have  impressed  themselves 
more  and  more  upon  my  mind  as  I  have  been  tarrying  here  for  a 
day  or  two,  which  seem  to  bear  directly  upon  this  onward  course 
of  Christian  missions  in  the  world.  They  are  familiar  facts ;  they 
are  secular  facts ;  and  yet  they  are  significant  facts ;  and  while 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  55 

facts  are  said  to  be  stubborn  things  —  as  they  are,  for  argument 
cannot  change  them  and  remonstrance  cannot  destroy  them  — 
they  are  also  suggestive  and  significant  things.  Sometimes  a 
series  of  facts  converges  in  influence  on  a  given  point  until  it 
involves  the  mightiest  force  of  reason  and  appeal.  It  is  like  the 
fire  of  converging  batteries,  against  which  no  granite  walls  and 
no  iron  plates  can  permanently  stand. 

One  of  these  facts,  for  example,  is  that  which  is  familiar  to  us 
all,  and  which  was  referred  to  in  the  paper  of  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  last 
evening,  in  the  meeting  of  the  Board ;  that  is  the  universal  ex- 
ploration of  the  world  in  our  time.  There  was  no  passion  for 
geographical  exploration  among  the  cultured  nations  of  antiquity, 
in  Egypt  or  in  Greece.  The  Hellene  looked  on  all  outside  of  the 
Greeks  as  barbarians,  and  he  did  not  care  to  know  about  their 
countries  or  their  manners.  No  country  was  lovely  if  it  was  not 
like  Greece,  and  no  manners  were  delightful  if  they  were  other 
than  the  Hellenic.  Nor  did  the  Egyptian  care  about  the  peoples 
who  lived  outside,  or  about  the  territories  which  they  inhabited. 
The  Roman  Empire  had  no  passion  for  geographical  exploration, 
except  as  that  was  connected  with  plans  of  military  conquest. 
The  early  middle  ages  knew  nothing  of  such  desire  for  informa- 
tion concerning  other  countries.  That  desire  came  with  the  Cru- 
sades, and  it  was  one  of  the  noblest  fruits  of  the  Crusades  — 
perhaps,  we  may  almost  say,  the  very  best  —  that  people  learned 
to  wish  to  know  more  of  lands  which  they  had  never  seen,  and 
even  the  rumor  of  whose  existence  had  hardly  reached  them. 
So  the  Crusades  gave  the  impulse  which  sent  Marco  Polo  to  the 
East,  and  which  sent  Columbus  to  the  West,  on  that  voyage  of 
discovery,  the  termination  of  which  our  friends  in  Chicago  are 
expecting  to  celebrate  three  years  hence.  That  passion  sent  out 
subsequently  the  Italian,  the  Spanish,  the  French,  and  the  English 
navigators,  to  circumnavigate  the  new  part  of  the  world,  and 
finally  the  world  itself.  That  has  been  a  growing  passion  in  the 
civilized  world  until  this  time,  and  was  never  more  intense  than 
it  is  at  present.  There  is  as  intense  a  curiosity  about  foreign 
countries,  to-night,  which  we  have  never  seen,  as  there  is  to  know 
who  was  the  man  in  the  Iron  Mask,  or  to  know  if  anybody  can 


56  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

explain  to  us  the  meaning  of  considerable  parts  of  Browning's 
poetry.     [Laughter.] 

I  remember  fifty  years  ago  that  I  introduced  a  classmate  of 
mine,  a  very  capable  man  and  a  very  good  student,  but  extremely 
shy,  to  a  very  charming  young  lady,  with  whom  it  turned  out  that 
he  had  to  take  a  walk  of  half  a  mile  in  a  moonlight  night.  I  was 
rather  interested  to  know  what  the  subjects  of  conversation  were, 
how  animated  the  conversation  was,  and  particularly  whether  any 
special  effect  had  been  produced  upon  his  susceptible  heart  by 
that  moonlight  walk.  So  when  he  came  back  I  said  to  him, 
"  Well,  how  did  the  talk  come  off?  "  "  Oh,  very  well,"  said  he, "  I 
don't  think  we  went  a  rod  without  one  of  us  saying  something 
[laughter]  ;  and  the  last  question  I  asked  her  was  whether  she 
did  not  think  that  geography  was  a  pretty  interesting  study." 
[Laughter  and  applause.] 

Well,  my  fears  were  entirely  relieved  with  regard  to  the  state  of 
that  man's  heart.  But  the  question  he  asked  is  one  to  which  the 
world  responds  now  with  great  emphasis.  Yes,  geography  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  studies  in  the  world ;  and  there  are  very 
few  in  any  community  who  are  not  more  or  less  drawn  to  its  pur- 
suit. So  it  is  that  we  know  the  world,  as  we  know  the  pages  of  a 
book  which  we  are  reading.  We  go  with  the  explorer ;  we  climb 
the  mountains  with  him,  while  we  sit  in  our  libraries ;  we  thread 
the  forests ;  we  slip  down  the  sliding  rivers  or  float  on  the  broad 
lakes ;  we  follow  the  explorer  in  his  camping,  and  in  his  journey- 
ing, and  the  regions  which  he  has  explored  are  open  to  our  eyes 
without  fatigue  and  at  slight  expense.  Africa,  the  last  of  the 
countries  to  be  explored,  is  now  almost  as  well  known  to  us  as  the 
regions  which  stretch  from  here  to  the  Pacific.  We  know 
the  passes  of  the  Himalayas ;  we  know  almost  as  much  about 
the  immense  realms  of  the  Czar  as  that  frightened  man,  in  terror  of 
his  life  every  hour,  knows  himself.  The  very  bottom  of  the  sea 
has  been  searched ;  its  mountains  and  its  submarine  valleys,  and 
its  vast  plains,  have  been  declared  to  us.  Every  coral  reef  has 
been  marked  upon  the  map.  We  know  the  world  ;  it  is  all  open 
before  us. 

Missions   and   missionaries   have    contributed   largely   to   this 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  57 

effect ;  and  the  effect  has  an  immense  bearing,  of  course,  obvious 
to  every  man,  on  the  prosecution  of  the  missionary  work  in  time 
to  come.  This  is  one  fact,  then :  the  world  is  to  us  an  open 
book,  explored  on  every  side.  We  know  it  in  its  totality,  and  we 
know  it  in  its  parts. 

Another  fact  is  the  increasing  interdependence  of  each  part  of 
the  world  upon  every  other,  which  is  also  a  familiar  fact,  and  also 
a  secular  fact,  but  one  which  has  relation  to  this  entire  work  of 
Christian  missions.  It  expands,  of  course,  with  the  extension  of 
the  machineries  for  rapid  locomotion  over  every  civilized  land, 
and  into  many  lands  where  civilization  has  just  thrust  its  prongs, 
and  is  making  itself  seen  and  felt.  Fifty  years  ago,  as  we  know, 
the  entire  railway  system  of  the  world  reached  over  about  5,000 
miles.  Now  it  reaches  360,000  miles,  14  times  the  circumference 
of  the  globe ;  and  travel  increases  as  rapidly  as  the  railway  lines 
run  out.  Why,  in  New  England,  which  our  friend.  President 
Carter,  represents  so  delightfully,  the  people  transported  on  the 
railways  for  a  year  outnumbered,  it  is  said,  16  times  the  entire 
population  of  New  England.  So  with  the  steamships.  Fifty 
years  ago  they  were  scarcely  known,  and  now  the  whirl  of  the 
propeller  and  the  splash  of  the  paddle  are  heard  on  all  the  waters 
of  the  world.  Telegraph  lines  were  then  undreamed  of.  Now 
there  are  600,000  miles  of  telegraph  lines  on  the  globe  —  enough 
to  reach  out  to  the  moon  and  back  again,  with  a  remainder  suffi- 
cient to  go  five  times  around  the  world. 

These  facilities  for  intercourse  are  generating  and  stimulating 
intercourse  all  the  time.  In  1886,  I  have  seen  it  stated,  there 
were  70,000,000,000  of  letters  interchanged  between  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  earth.  And  the  process  is  going  on  into  countries,  as  I 
have  said,  which  have  hitherto  been  entirely  barbarous.  In  Japan, 
not  barbarous,  but  shut  out  from  our  civilization  by  its  own  elec- 
tion until  recently,  there  are  many  miles  of  railway  already  estab- 
lished. Very  soon  all  peoples  reaching  after  these  increased  facil- 
ities of  locomotion  from  point  to  point  will  be  knit  together  in 
consequence ;  so  that  now  every  part  of  the  world  is  dependent 
on  every  other  part. 


58  THE    OPPORTUNITY   OF   THE    WEST 

THESE   GREAT   FARMS 

in  Dakota  and  Minnesota  oppress  the  Englisii  and  French  agricul- 
turists. They  cannot  help  doing  it.  They  say  it  costs  less  to 
carry  the  product  of  five  acres  of  wheat  from  Chicago  to  Liver- 
pool than  it  costs  to  manure  a  single  acre  of  wheat  in  England. 
The  result  is  of  course  a  tremendous  competition,  against  which 
the  English  and  French  farmer  can  hardly  maintain  himself.  Out 
in  Dakota  they  say  the  labor  of  one  man  for  a  year  is  equivalent 
to  the  production  of  5,500  bushels  of  wheat;  and  here,  in  your 
city  of  Minneapolis,  the  labor  of  one  man  for  a  year  is  equivalent 
to  the  transformation  of  that  wheat  into  a  thousand  barrels  of 
flour ;  and  the  labor  of  two  men  it  is  calculated,  for  a  year,  will 
transport  that  flour  from  here  to  the  docks  of  New  York.  But 
then  Dakota  and  Minnesota  are  not  to  have  all  of  this  to  them- 
selves. In  India  they  are  raising  wheat  which  is  to  compete,  and 
does  compete,  in  the  markets  of  the  world  with  these  great  grain 
fields  of  the  Northwest.  Every  country  has  something  to  give 
which  other  countries  want.  One  effect  of  this  is,  of  course,  that 
a  general  famine  becomes  henceforth  impossible.  In  China  a  few 
years  ago  five  millions  of  people  died  of  starvation,  in  a  year  in 
which  the  crops  of  one  part  of  the  country  were  unusually  abun- 
dant ;  and  the  only  reason  was  that  there  were  no  facilities  for 
transportation,  which  civilization  would  have  given,  by  which  the 
supplies,  abundant  in  one  quarter,  could  have  been  sent  to  the 
destitute  districts  not  far  off,  while  they  could  not  be  transported 
by  man  or  by  horse-power.  Such  a  danger  is  hereafter  impossi- 
ble, every  part  of  the  world  contributing  something  to  every 
other  part. 

One  of  the  most  curious  illustrations  of  this  that  I  have  seen  is 
given  by  Mr.  David  A.  Wells  in  a  book  on  Economic  Changes  — 
a  very  interesting,  suggestive,  and  fruitful  book  —  in  which  he 
speaks  of  the  curious  fact  that  the  allowing  of  bounties  on  the 
production  of  beet  sugar  in  Germany  and  France  multiplied  pi- 
rates in  the  Malay  Straits ;  the  explanation  being  that  by  that 
offer  of  bounties  on  the  part  of  the  German  and  French,  and 
I  think   the  Austrian,  governments  for  the  production  of  beet 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  59 

sugar,  the  production  of  that  in  Java  was  disturbed ;  the  market 
for  the  Java  sugar  was  no  longer  open  ;  laborers  had  to  be  dis- 
charged, and  the  easiest  resource  for  them  was  to  turn  to  piracy. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  as  illustrating  this  interdependence  of  distant 
peoples  upon  each  other.  Lord  Brougham  once  said  that  not  an 
ax  fell  in  the  American  forest  but  it  set  in  motion  a  shuttle  in 
Manchester ;  and  we  may  say  almost  literally  that  there  is  not  a 
farm,  there  is  not  a  city  staked  out  anywhere  here  on  the  prairies, 
but  a  thrill  goes  from  it  throughout  the  civilized  world.  The 
earth  is  one  great  neighborhood ;  human  society  is  one  great  cos- 
mical  organization ;  and  every  member  of  this  great  society  has 
relation  to  every  other. 

Then  the  third  fact  is  that  the  wealth  of  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  civilized  and  Christian  world,  is  increasing  with  im- 
mense rapidity.  We  see  it  among  ourselves,  and  we  need  not  go 
elsewhere  to  find  an  illustration.  In  1861  the  production  of  silver 
in  this  country  was  $2,000,000;  in  1888  it  was  $59,000,000.  In 
the  35  years  between  1850  and  1885  the  entire  gold  product  in 
civilized  countries  was  multiplied  fourfold,  over  what  it  had  ever 
been  before.  In  1868  the  value  of  uncut  jewels  imported  into 
this  country,  largely  consisting  of  diamonds,  was  $1,000,000. 
Twenty  years  later,  in  1888,  it  was  $io,coo,ooo. 

Statistics  show  that  in  the  savings  banks,  and  in  other  institu- 
tions for  deposit,  paying  interest  on  such  deposit,  in  thirteen 
States  of  this  Union,  the  deposits  were  fifteen  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  last  year.  This  shows  the  immense  increase  of  wealth 
among  us. 

But  this  wealth  is  not  confined  to  this  country.  You  know  how 
the  English  wealth  is  flowing  out  in  all  directions,  and  into  all 
lands.  They  are  buying  flour-factories  here  in  Minneapolis,  and 
beer-factories  in  Brooklyn,  and  iron-foundries  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  great  ranches  in  the  Southwest.  France  is  a  richer  nation 
to-day  than  it  was  before  Sedan,  with  all  the  disasters  of  the  war, 
and  all  the  tremendous  war  tributes  which  she  had  to  pay  to  Ger- 
many ;  and  Germany  is  simply  feverish,  and  almost  riotous,  in  the 
new  riches  which  have  been  poured  upon  her. 

The  same  thing  goes  on  in  lands  which  the  Gospel  has  only 


6o  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

begun  to  touch.  In  India  such  is  the  multipHcation  of  the 
machinery  for  cotton  spinning  and  weaving  that  India  begins  to 
supply  Japan  and  China  as  well  as  herself.  The  Lancashire  man- 
ufacturers complain  that  not  only  has  their  market  in  India  been 
practically  closed  to  them,  but  that  India  is  intercepting  them  in 
lands  beyond.  The  cultivation  of  the  cinchona  tree  in  India  has 
largely  limited  the  traffic  of  Colombia  and  Peru,  and  made 
quinine,  in  more  than  one  sense  of  the  word,  a  drug  in  the  mar- 
ket. [Laughter.]  India  sends  us  better  teas,  because  stronger 
teas,  than  we  get  from  China.  In  Japan,  with  its  thirty-six  mil- 
lions of  population,  on  an  area  as  large  as  the  State  of  Califor- 
nia, only  a  very  small  part  of  which  has  been  hitherto  under 
cultivation,  the  area  of  cultivation  is  extending,  and  the  wealth 
of  the  people  continually  increasing. 

The  world  is  growing  richer  with  every  year,  by  every  stroke  of 
labor,  by  every  touch  of  the  genius  of  invention,  by  every  swift 
wheel  of  commerce ;  and  the  discontent  of  labor  comes  out  of 
that  fact,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem.  The  laborer  has  higher 
wages  to-day  than  he  had  two  years  ago.  The  price  of  commod- 
ities is  thirty  per  cent,  less  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  and  the 
laborer  has  more  money  with  which  to  buy  cheaply,  and  live 
more  comfortably.  But  man  is  a  creature,  as  it  has  been  said,  of 
progressive  wants.  He  wants  something  better  than  he  has.  If 
he  has  broadcloth  he  wants  furs.  If  he  has  a  comfortable  house, 
he  wants  a  library,  pictures,  and,  perhaps,  a  billiard  room,  and 
very  likely  a  lawn  and  stable.  If  a  man  had  a  house  built  of 
gold,  and  floored  with  silver,  he  would  want  it  ceiled  with  mother 
of  pearl,  and  with  diamond  plates  in  the  windows.  [Applause.] 
The  laborer  sees  this 

IMMENSE   INCREASE   OF   WEALTH, 

and  while  he  knows  that  he  is  more  comfortable  than  his  father 
was  before  him,  and  that  his  children  are  likely  to  be  more  com- 
fortably placed  than  he  is  himself,  he  does  not  feel  that  he  gets 
his  fair  share  of  the  immensely  increasing  accumulation  of  wealth 
which  he  sees  all  around  him.     The  unrest  of  the  laboring  classes 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  6 1 

is  simply  a  sign  of  this  immense  accumulation  of  wealth  in  all 
civilized  countries. 

And  it  is  to  go  on.  The  earth  has  not  yet  put  on  her  beautiful 
array  of  civilization.  There  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  this  indefinite 
advance.  We  see  in  patches  and  in  fringes,  here  and  there,  what 
the  final  superb  garments  are  to  be ;  but  they  who  live  a  hundred 
years  or  two  hundred  years  after  us  will  see  such  wondrous  orna- 
mentation of  the  earth  with  the  power  of  this  wealth  as  we,  as 
yet,  can  scarcely  conceive. 

There  is  another  fact,  still,  which  comes  in  connection  with  this, 
and  that  is  the  immense  simultaneous  advancement  of  this  great 
West  in  all  the  elements  of  wealth,  of  intelligence,  of  material 
prosperity,  of  intellectual  and  physical  power.  Remember  that 
when  this  Board  was  organized  there  was  no  West  beyond  the 
Ohio ;  that  was  the  point  where  the  sun  descended  on  this  conti- 
nent, from  the  eyes  of  civilized  men.  Fifty  years  ago  there  were 
only  a  few  scattered  beginnings  of  the  West  as  it  now  is.  The 
advance  has  been  not  by  steps,  but  by  leaps ;  not  by  gradual 
motion,  as  of  a  softly  flowing  current,  but  rather,  as  a  swift  mo- 
tion of  the  current  over  rapids.  So  it  is  that  we  have  this  pro- 
digious territory,  which  almost  passes  our  understanding,  so  largely 
and  so  rapidly  occupied  as  it  has  been,  and  is,  and  is  to  be.  Why, 
look  at  New  England  on  the  map  of  the  country,  and  see  how 
easily  it  could  be  tucked  away  in  some  comer  of  this  great  North- 
west !  I  almost  feel  like  apologizing  for  having  been  born  there 
[laughter  and  applause],  but  it  was  not  my  fault.  [Renewed 
laughter.]  You  have  not  only  this  immense  extent  of  prairie, 
with  these  vast  lakes  and  rivers,  these  wealthy  mines,  these  moun- 
tain ranges,  but  you  have  all  the  comforts  of  civilized  life  in  their 
completeness;  all  the  railway  systems,  all  the  beautiful  mechan- 
isms, all  the  social  institutions,  libraries,  colleges,  universities, 
thousands  of  churches,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Christian  homes. 
With  all  this  material  advance  you  have  the  moral  advance  keep- 
ing in  line  with  it,  and  not  infrequently  keeping  in  front  of  it.  It 
is  a  great  fact  in  the  history  of  the  world  that  this  splendid  town 
should  be  builded  on  the  camping  ground  and  the  fighting  ground 
of  heathen  tribes ;  that  the  bivouac  of  the  immigrant  is  now  the 


62  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

site  of  cities ;  that  the  bison  has  disappeared  only  that  the  West- 
ern boomer  may  take  his  place.     [Laughter  and  applause.] 

Here  then  are  these  four  facts  going  together :  our  perfect 
acquaintance  with  the  world  at  large ;  the  interdependence  of 
every  people  upon  every  other  people  ;  the  enormously  increasing 
wealth  of  the  civilized  world;  and  the  rapid  development  of 
power  and  wealth,  intelligence  and  culture,  and  moral  life,  in  this 
vast  region  of  the  West. 

Now  there  are  some  things  which  it  seems  to  me  a  man  of  the 
world  must  see  if  he  looks  at  these  four  facts,  and  admits  that 
there  is  any  authority  in  the  Master  of  Christendom,  or  any  power 
in  the  Word  which  he  gave  to  the  world.  One  is  that  Christian 
missions  only  move  in  the  line  of  the  world's  progress,  and  that 
they  are  aided  powerfully  by  all  these  sudden  advances  in  human 
civilization.  Of  course  the  Gospel  encounters  opposition  wher- 
ever it  goes  :  the  opposition  of  the  human  heart ;  the  opposition 
of  great  institutions  antagonizing  the  Gospel ;  the  opposition  of 
literature  and  of  the  priesthood ;  the  opposition  of  tradition,  and 
settled  and  dominant  habit.  It  must  encounter  that  opposition 
everywhere,  as  it  has  done  from  the  commencement  of  the  Chris- 
tian history ;  but  it  is  helped  by  the  streams  of  civilization,  on 
every  side  and  in  every  land.  It  simply  goes  with  civilization. 
The  Gospel  had  to  break  into  India,  by  a  spasmodic  and  almost 
convulsive  endeavor.  It  had  to  break  into  Burmah  in  the  same 
way.  It  had  to  break  into  the  Indian  tribes  in  this  Northwest  in 
the  same  way ;  but  now  it  is  carried  upon  the  great  vehicles  of 
civilization.  The  trend  of  the  world's  progress  helps  it  forward, 
in  every  direction ;  and  the  very  ships  which  carry  rum  and 
powder  to  savage  shores  have  to  carry  missionaries  and  Bibles 
with  them. 

Another  fact  is  that  the  progress  of  Christian  missions,  signal 
as  it  is,  does  not  at  all  keep  up,  as  yet,  with  the  progress  of  the 
world  in  its  machineries,  and  in  its  rapidly  accumulated  wealth. 
Does  not  keep  up,  did  I  say?  Why,  it  is  a  mere  sluggish  rill  be- 
side the  mighty  Mississippi  current !  The  world  is  rushing  for- 
ward, and  the  Church  is  limping  after  it  in  the  work  of  missions. 
Secretary  Smith  said  the  other  evening  that  eleven   millions  of 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  63 

dollars  were  annually  contributed  to  foreign  missions.  What  are 
1 1 1,000,000  a  year  compared  with  the  riches  piled  up  in  the 
hands  of  the  children  of  God  on  the  earth  with  every  succeeding 
year  ?  Men  of  the  world  do  not  take  an  interest  in  missions,  be- 
cause they  do  not  understand  them  to  be  a  means  of  power. 
How  hard  it  is  to  understand  that !  The  Gospel  is  a  Gospel  of 
grace,  but  it  is  a  Gospel  of  power  as  well. 

It  is  as  real  a  power  that  changes  a  savage,  or  lifts  a  ruffian  into 
moral  manhood,  as  is  the  power  that  tunnels  a  mountain,  or  makes 
a  bullet  traverse  the  air  ;  and  it  is  as  real  a  power  which  lifts  up 
a  tribe  into  civilized  society,  into  moral  aspiration,  into  the  dig- 
nity of  moral  character,  as  is  the  power  which  sends  steamships 
out  upon  the  sea,  or  which  transforms  a  bar  of  iron  into  a  bar 
of  steel. 

Some  time  men  will  find  out  that  the  only  undecaying  power, 
the  only  indomitable  power  in  human  civilization,  is  the  power  of 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  God's  word  of  power  as  well  as  of  grace 
for  the  world.  But,  as  I  say,  men  of  the  world  do  not  understand 
this.  They  do  not  see  the  great  missionary  movement  in  its  real 
significance.  They  do  not  understand  the  great  figures  of  the 
missionary  movement.  I  remember  a  cartoon  of  the  Reforma- 
tion by  William  Kaulbach,  which  I  saw  in  his  studio  in  Munich 
twenty  years  ago,  which  afterward  was  brought  to  this  country, 
having  been  purchased  by  an  American  gentleman,  and  which  is 
now,  I  think,  in  the  Eastern  States.  It  is  a  magnificent  picture, 
representing  the  progress  of  the  centuries  up  to  the  point  of  the 
era  of  the  Reformation,  with  all  the  great  thinkers,  the  great  in- 
ventors and  men  of  science,  and  the  noble  rulers,  set  in  a  majestic 
and  charming  group.  The  picture  was  exhibited  in  New  York 
after  it  came  to  this  country ;  and  it  so  happened  that  in  the 
same  collection  with  it  was  exhibited  a  somewhat  florid  picture  in 
brilliant  colors.  I  think  the  subject  was  "A  Spanish  Garden 
Party."  A  friend  of  mine  was  in  the  room  and  observed  that 
some  persons  walking  about,  and  looking  at  the  pictures,  had  got 
the  card-key  of  the  picture  of  the  Reformation,  and  were  apply- 
ing it,  with  considerable  difficulty  and  confusion  of  mind,  to  the 
picture  of  the  Spanish  Garden  Party.     [Laughter.]     They  made 


64  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

out  that  Copernicus  was  evidently  a  monk ;  that  Columbus  was 
probably  a  Moorish  juggler ;  that  a  Spanish  dame,  with  plumes  on 
her  head  and  a  falcon  on  her  wrist,  in  very  showy  garments,  was, 
no  doubt,  Queen  Elizabeth ;  that  a  page  who  was  leading  a  pet 
terrier  by  a  silk  cord  was,  in  all  probability,  Martin  Luther. 
[Laughter.]  That  is  just  about  the  way  the  men  of  the  world 
judge  of  the  missionary  figures,  illustrious  in  the  history  of  this 
century.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  They  think  Henry  Martyn 
was  a  dyspeptic  recluse  ;  that  Judson  was  a  man  who  might  have 
made  a  capital  engineer,  or  a  not  unsuccessful  politician,  who 
absolutely  threw  himself  away ;  and  they  think  of  Livingstone  as 
a  desperate  crank. 

Some  time  or  other  in  the  midst  of  all  the  rush  of  material 
progress,  men  of  the  world  will  find  out  that  missions  have  in 
them  the  power  which  is  to  lift  the  world  nearer  to  the  throne  of 
God  j  and  that  the  men  and  the  women  who  go  out  with  their 
lives  in  their  hands  to  carry  the  tidings  of  grace  and  salvation  to 
those  whom  they  have  never  seen,  whose  languages  they  learn 
with  difficulty,  and  to  whose  social  customs  they  cannot  adjust 
themselves,  having  to  live  as  Christians  in  the  midst  of  unchris- 
tian peoples  —  that  these  are  the  true  heroes  and  heroines  of  the 
century  in  which  we  live  !     Thus  will  come  accelerated  progress. 

Some  time  or  other  men  will  find  out,  I  reaffirm  it,  that  the 
only  undecaying  power  in  human  civilization  is  the  power  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  third  of  the  suggestions  is  that  this  great  West  is  to  have  a 
mighty  part  in  this  sublime  enterprise  for  God  and  for  men,  which 
so  many  of  the  tendencies  of  the  world  and  so  much  of  the  trend 
of  civilization  are  carrying  forward  toward  grander  success.  This 
is  the  opportunity  of  the  West.  This  is  its  privilege,  and  this  is 
its  mighty  obligation. 

It  has  the  money ;  it  has  the  men  and  the  women  ;  it  has  the 
young  life.  Some  day  it  is  to  take  hold  of  this  work  with  an  in- 
tensity of  spirit,  with  a  firmness  and  even  stubbornness  of  pur- 
pose, with  a  liberality  of  counsel  and  of  gift,  which  as  yet  have 
nowhere  appeared  on  the  continent.  The  West  needs  it  for  itself ! 
It  needs  to  keep  the  spiritual  predominant  over  both  the  material 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  65 

and  the  physical.  The  man,  no  matter  what  his  power,  no  matter 
what  the  strength  of  his  sinews,  or  the  strength  of  his  mind,  or 
the  multitude  of  his  possessions,  if  he  is  only  physically  and  or- 
ganically strong,  with  a  weak  spiritual  sense  within,  is  nothing 
else  and  nothing  more  than  a  gigantic  moral  idiot.  A  great  house, 
I  do  not  care  how  sumptuous  it  is,  if  it  has  not  a  rich,  moral  life 
within  it,  is  simply  a  gigantic  granite  bubble,  which  the  elements 
will  force  to  crumble  and  disappear.  And  so  the  West,  with  all 
its  vast  prodigality  of  resources,  with  all  its  magnificent  develop- 
ment, needs  this  spiritual  power  within  it,  constantly  renewed, 
energized,  and  unfolded,  in  order  that  it  may  reach  the  supreme 
heights  of  character  and  culture,  and  influence  in  the  world,  which 
are  possible  to  it,  and  which  God  designs  for  it.  Then  it  may 
take  hold  on  the  hands  of  God,  as  the  fathers  of  New  England 
did,  in  their  loneliness  and  poverty,  on  their  bleak  coasts  with 
which  these  shining  expanses  and  these  magnificent  cities  are  in 
such  extraordinary  contrast.  There  was  their  power  :  they  had  a 
sense  of  God's  plan  concerning  them  and  the  country  they  were 
civilizing,  and  in  which  they  were  establishing  organized  Christian 
commonwealths.  They  had  the  sense  of  walking  in  the  plans  of 
the  Almighty,  of  having  supernal  assistances  before  and  behind 
them,  and  supernal  inspirations  within  them ;  and  their  strength 
was  such  that  the  fever  and  the  frost  could  not  destroy  it,  and 
hunger  and  famine  and  pestilence,  and  savage  foe  and  savage 
beast,  could  not  constrain  one  of  them  to  leave  those  shores. 
Now,  God  had  a  plan  about  this  West.  It  has  not  come  by 
chance.  He  spread  out  the  expanse  of  the  prairies ;  he  traced 
the  mighty  course  of  rivers ;  he  lifted  the  mountain  ranges ;  he 
made  them  wealthy  with  inexhaustible  mines;  he  rapidly  colo- 
nized, when  his  time  had  come,  this  mighty  West.  There  is  as  dis- 
tinct a  plan  in  God's  providence  for  this  country  as  there  is  in 
the  game  of  any  chess-player,  or  in  the  campaign  of  any  general. 
He  settled  the  fathers  on  the  sandy  shores  of  Plymouth,  by  the 
impulse  of  the  religious  determination  to  be  free  —  the  strongest 
passion  of  the  human  soul.  Then  he  carried  them  forward  into 
the  fertile  lands  along  the  Mohawk  and  the  Ohio ;  and  that  spirit 
of  rehgious  freedom  gradually  ceased  to  be  in  danger  of  becom- 


66  THE    OPPORTUNITY  OF  THE    WEST 

ing  frenzied  and  fanatical.  It  subsided  into  the  milder  moral 
temper  which  afterward  appeared.  He  thus  colonized  the  West 
by  degrees.  But  then  there  were  the  great  alkali  plains ;  there 
were  the  Rocky  Mountains,  whose  passes  were  not  known.  It  was 
necessary  that  the  Pacific  coast  should  be  occupied  by  the  same 
people,  and  a  man  picked  up  a  flake  of  gold  in  the  dry  bed  of  a 
mill  stream,  and  an  empire  was  poured  across  the  continent 
almost  in  a  decade.  That  is  God's  plan  concerning  this  country. 
He  had  a  plan  for  the  West  as  well  as  for  the  East ;  and  whenever 
the  West  rises  to  this  magnificent  work,  with  full  exertion  on  its 
behalf  of  every  power,  and  full  consecration  to  it  of  every  re- 
source, it  will  feel  God  nearer  than  ever,  and  angels  from  the 
throne  of  God  will  behold  a  power  and  a  beauty  upon  it  which  no 
physical  wealth  or  advancement  could  possibly  confer.  And  when 
the  West  comes  to  that  point,  then  it  will  give  not  money  only, 
but  men  and  women. 

Personal  service  is  what  Christ  asks.  It  is  a  very  curious  fact 
that  with  all  the  fall  in  the  price  of  commodities  in  the  last  thirty 
years,  there  has  been  no  diminution  in  the  price  paid  for  service 
—  in  domestic  service,  in  journaHsm,  in  educational  work,  among 
artisans,  engineers,  and  clerks.  Everywhere  the  rate  of  payment 
for  personal  service  is  higher  than  it  was  then.     Christ  wants 

PERSONAL    SERVICE 

from  those  who  follow  him.  Mary's  gift  of  ointment  amounted 
in  money  equivalent  to  a  year's  wages  of  a  laboring  man  in  Pales- 
tine at  that  time ;  but  it  was  cheap  in  comparison  with  the  per- 
sonal element  which  entered  into  it,  and  which  has  made  it  not 
only  dear  to  the  heart  of  Christ,  but  immortal  in  the  earth,  wher- 
ever the  Gospel  of  Christ  has  been  preached  from  that  hour  to 
this.  He  wants  personal  service  from  you  and  from  me ;  and 
when  we  are  alive  to  the  obligation  to  obey  him  and  the  mighty 
privilege  of  that  obedience,  our  personal  service  will  be  given 
easily,  gladly,  and  triumphantly. 

The  West  wants  to  give  great  enthusiasm  to  this  work;  it  is 
capable  of  great  enthusiasm  in  things  physical,  and  things  mate- 
rial.    A  gentleman  who  was  riding  with  me  on  the  cars  from  New 


IN  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  6/ 

York  the  other  day  said,  in  regard  to  your  vast  railway  systems, 
"In  New  England  we  think  it  is  a  tremendous  thing  to  build 
a  railway  forty  miles  long ;  but  out  here  at  the  West  they  build 
a  railway  two  hundred  miles  long,  simply  to  get  to  a  place  to  start 
from  to  go  somewhere  else."  [Laughter  and  applause.]  The 
enthusiasm  carries  it  swiftly  forward,  and  abroad,  on  these  magnifi- 
cent material  enterprises.  It  will  carry  it  some  time  or  other  for- 
ward, and  upward,  and  onward,  with  mighty  power  and  speed,  in 
this  great  cosmical  work  of  Christian  missions.  It  will  see  for 
what  God  made  it ;  it  will  see  for  what  he  filled  it  with  such  mul- 
titudes of  cultured  and  powerful  minds  and  hearts.  It  will  enter 
into  the  eternal  plan  with  an  enthusiasm  that  will  make  itself  felt 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  —  an  enthusiasm  that  will  stir  the  languid 
and  the  dull  wherever  it  smites  them  and  hasten  the  coming  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  of  his  Son  in  glory  ! 

Ah,  my  friends,  this  is  the  time.  This  American  Board  has 
just  passed  through  a  period  of  debate.  It  is  now  out  of  the 
woods :  it  is  on  the  King's  highway.  [Loud  applause.]  The 
darkness  is  passed  and  the  dawn  is  here.  I  came  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  from  regions  in  which  all  the  foliage  was  dull  and  gray. 
In  the  AUeghanies  it  was  prismatic  in  its  rainbow  beauty.  As  I 
crossed  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  and  came  hither,  there  was 
still  the  same  magnificence  on  every  side,  —  the  shining  orange, 
and  gold,  and  crimson  on  all  the  trees,  as  if  some  giant  hand  had 
caught  the  forests  and  tied  them  in  magnificent  bouquets.  And 
I  said  to  myself :  "  Here  is  this  picturesque  prodigality  of  splendor, 
representing  the  picturesque  prodigality  of  spirit  when  the  Lord's 
time  shall  come."  That  is  the  spirit  for  which  we  wait.  The  air 
of  it  is  not  autumnal ;  it  is  the  air  of  hope  and  confidence,  —  the 
air  of  spring,  though  the  splendor  of  the  autumn  is  all  around. 

You  remember  what  Angelo  said  of  the  superb  work  of  the 
sculptor  Donatello,  after  long  contemplating  his  wonderful  figure 
of  St.  George  on  the  outside  of  the  church  of  San  Michele  at 
Florence.  The  great  sculptor  looked  at  it  with  admiration  and 
surprise.  Every  limb  was  perfect,  every  line  complete,  the  face 
lighted  almost  with  human  intelligence,  the  brow  uplifted,  the 
form  poised  as  if  it  would  step  into  life.    And  as  the  bystanders 


68         THE    OPPORTUNITY   OF  THE    WEST. 

waited  anxiously  for  the  verdict,  the  great  sculptor,  looking  still 
upon  the  statue,  slowly  lifted  his  hand  and  said  :  "  Now  March  !  " 
It  was  the  grandest  encomium  he  could  have  given  to  the  figure 
of  St,  George  in  marble.  My  friends,  that  is  God's  word  for  us. 
**  I  have  given  you  power,  I  have  given  you  knowledge,  I  have 
given  you  the  means  of  influence ;  now  March  !  "     [Applause.] 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  MINNEAPOLIS. 


Dr.  Thwtng,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee :  It  is  my  pleas- 
ant office  at  the  close  of  this  meeting  to  return  to  you  all,  and  to 
the  families  which  have  been  represented  by  you,  the  most  hearty 
and  fervent  thanks  of  the  Board  for  the  extreme  kindness  with 
which  you  have  met  us,  for  the  bounteous  hospitalities  which  you 
have  offered,  and  for  all  that  you  have  done  to  make  our  meeting 
successful  in  its  discussion  and  its  action.  Every  place  of  duty, 
so  far  as  I  know,  brings  with  it  also  a  privilege.  The  office  of 
President  of  this  Board  brings  some  responsibilities  and  labors, 
but  it  also  brings  great  privileges.  It  excuses  him  from  taking 
part  in  debate ;  it  permits  him  to  respond  to  the  words  of  saluta- 
tion with  which  the  Board  is  welcomed,  and  to  respond  to  the 
word  of  good-by  with  which  the  Board  is  dismissed,  where  other- 
wise on  these  two  delightful  occasions,  his  lips  must  be  mute.  So 
I  accept  the  privilege,  and  rejoice  to  avail  myself  of  it  in  return- 
ing now  the  thanks  of  the  Board. 

We  are  grateful  for  the  opportunities  of  seeing  parts  of  this 
great  Northwest.  I  confess  that  I  was  somewhat  reminded  on 
Tuesday  of  an  old  farmer  in  Fryeburg,  Me,,  who  came  over  to 
Conway,  where  I  was  spending  the  summer,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Fourth  of  July.  Probably  he  had  never  been  outside  of  his 
village  before.  There  was  a  large  crowd,  a  band,  and  a  procession ; 
and  in  the  afternoon  he  said  to  his  sons  who  had  brought  him 
over,  "  Boys,  I  must  go  home  ;  I  had  no  idea  that  the  world  was 
so  big,  and  that  there  were  so  many  people  in  it.  It  makes  my 
head  ache  ! "  [Laughter.]  Well,  I  have  got  over  that,  and  if  I 
were  to  stay  here  a  month  my  brain  would  begin  physically 
to  expand,  no  doubt,  without  pain  to  the  skull,  and  be  some- 


70  CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  MINNEAPOLIS. 

what  proportionate  to  the  dimensions  of  this  vast  section  of  the 
country. 

We  are  grateful  for  the  spirit  of  inspiration  and  courage  which 
you  have  given  to  us.  We  are  grateful  —  more,  I  had  almost 
said,  than  for  anything  else  —  for  the  sense  of  Christian  fellowship 
with  those  living  far  away,  many  of  whose  faces  we  have  not  be- 
fore seen,  but  whose  pulses  we  feel  beating  to  the  same  celestial 
truths  which  guide  and  impel  our  hearts,  as  often  as  we  touch 
their  hands.  It  strengthens  every  one  of  us  in  the  Christian 
faith,  and  in  Christian  purpose,  to  know  that  there  are  such  mul- 
titudes afar  who  are  praying  to  the  same  Master,  loving  the  same 
divine  Word,  working  on  the  same  divine  errand  in  the  world. 

This  will  be  a  notable  meeting,  I  am  sure,  in  the  history  of  the 
American  Board.  I  said  the  other  day,  when  I  had  the  privilege 
of  responding  to  the  address  of  welcome,  that  I  was  never  afraid 
of  discussion.  We  cannot  better  get  at  the  roots  of  things.  1 
think  the  discussion  which  we  have  been  having  here  has  illus- 
trated the  truth  of  that  remark.  We  have  come  to  results  with 
which  we  are  satisfied.  It  has  not  been  a  tornado  of  discussion, 
tearing  up  things  by  the  roots,  and  scattering  debris  on  every  side. 
It  has  not  been  a  blizzard  of  discussion,  shedding  desolation  and 
death  from  its  icy  wings.  It  has  been  a  good  strong  Northwest 
breeze  of  discussion  [applause],  which  carries  its  tonic  vigor  all 
over  the  land,  which  revives  life  and  energy  everywhere,  and 
which  reaches  down  to  the  sun-smitten  shore  of  the  Atlantic  in 
summer  time.  We  rejoice  in  the  results  to  which  we  have  been 
led.  We  shall  always  remember,  gratefully  to  you  and  to  God, 
the  opportunity  we  have  had  of  holding  this  our  meeting,  a  very 
decisive  meeting  as  I  think,  in  this  city  of  MinneapoHs. 

I  have  had  a  letter  from  Dr.  Herrick,  our  dear  brother  in  the 
Turkish  mission,  written  just  as  he  was  leaving  to  return  to  his 
field,  denying  himself  the  pleasure  of  being  at  this  meeting  in 
order  that  he  might  be  a  week  or  two  sooner  on  his  field  of  labor. 
I  was  very  much  struck  with  a  remark  which  he  made  in  the  let- 
ter. He  said  that,  as  far  as  he  knew,  in  all  languages  of  civilized 
people,  the  words  of  parting  are  uniformly  words  of  hope  and  of 
prayer.     I  thought  at  once  to  myself  how  far  ray  own  knowledge 


CONCLUDING  ADDRESS  AT  MINNEAPOLIS.  Ji 

corresponded  with  that,  and  I  was  sure  that  it  was  so  in  the 
French,  German,  Italian,  and  English  languages.  Our  words 
Good-by,  or  God  be  with  you ;  Farewell :  they  are  full  of  hope 
and  of  prayer.  And  it  is  in  that  spirit  that  I  say  to  you,  my  dear 
brother,  and  to  all  the  members  of  these  committees,  and  to  all 
the  households  who  have  so  generously  entertained  us,  Good-by, 
God  be  with  you !  Fare  ye  well  !  until  the  time  comes  when 
from  the  North  and  the  South,  from  the  East  and  the  West,  we 
come  to  meet  together  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Father,  and  to  sit 
together  in  the  heavenly  places  where  we  shall  see  the  face  of 
Christ.     [Loud  applause.] 


IV. 

to  sfforeign  iFEfj^^sionji. 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING  AT  PITTSFIELD,  1891. 


THE  VISION  OF   CHRIST  THE  INSPIRATION 
TO  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


Christian  Brethren,  and  Friends :  I  had  earnestly  hoped,  and 
confidently  expected,  that  some  one  else  would  perform  this  office 
to-night,  and  that  I  should  address  you,  if  at  all,  only  as  one  of 
the  side  speakers.  Thus  I  was  frequently  wont  to  speak  when 
our  revered  father  and  brother.  Dr.  Hopkins,  filled  this  chair ;  as 
I  did,  I  remember,  twenty-five  years  ago,  in  yonder  church ;  but 
the  Board  in  its  wisdom,  or  unwisdom,  has  decided  otherwise. 
So  far  as  this  special  service  goes,  I  have  no  quarrel  with  that 
decision.  It  is  always  a  delight  to  me  to  speak  on  the  subject  of 
foreign  missions.  No  other  theme  which  I  ever  meet  so  expands, 
uplifts,  exhilarates  the  mind.  We  are  here  in  the  spirit  of  grati- 
tude and  of  hope.  Looking  back  over  four  or  five  years,  there 
have  been  great  advances  in  the  number  of  the  men  and  women 
who  are  testifying  for  the  Master  as  our  representatives  among 
men,  in  the  pecuniary  resources  and  the  fruitful  work  of  the 
Board  throughout  the  world.  Since  we  met  here  twenty-five 
years  ago  there  has  been  a  still  vaster  advance.  Four  or  five 
years  after  that  meeting  the  stream,  then  one,  divided  into  two 
currents.  Each  of  these  has  gone  on  by  itself,  and  each  has  be- 
come a  majestic  stream,  a  river  of  love  and  light  and  power  for 
all  the  world.  But  we  are  not  here  to-night  simply  to  review  and 
rejoice  in  the  past. 

It  is  the  instinct  of  Christianity  always  to  point  forward. 
Wherever  the  individual  has  the  first  feeble  purpose  to  serve 
God,  there  begins  the  process  in  the  result  of  which  he  must  con- 
secrate all  his  life  and  powers  to  Him.  The  incipient  faith  points 
to  the  celestial  vision ;  the  first  pulsation  of  love  to  the  perfect 


76  THE    VISION  OF  CHRIST 

affection  of  sanctification ;  the  primal  peace  to  the  serene  and 
immortal  felicity.  Thus  it  is  that  earth  prophesies  Heaven ;  that 
the  first  fruit  of  grace  in  man  grows  and  blooms  to  immortality. 
So  it  is  with  every  Christian  institution  of  charity  that  I  have 
known.  Each  desires  ampler  and  more  complete  equipment, 
and  better  power  for  better  work.  So  it  is  with  our  colleges ; 
with  the  college  here  in  Berkshire  County,  which  has  become 
famous  in  the  world.  It  will  celebrate  its  centennial  in  two  years. 
I  remember  having  been  present,  and  having  heard  Dr.  Hopkins' 
discourse,  at  its  semi-centennial  in  1843.  I  remember  how  joyful 
Dr.  Hopkins  was  when  in  1 844  or  1 845  Amos  Lawrence  gave  the 
college  $15,000.  Now  that  sum  would  seem  by  no  means  im- 
mense. The  present  college  may  appear  to  some  amply  equipped ; 
it  has  superb  grounds  and  buildings,  a  rich  library,  many  depart- 
ments, I  suppose  large  funds ;  yet  I  do  not  doubt  that  President 
Carter  thinks  he  knows  just  where  a  million  and  a  half,  or  two 
millions  more,  could  be  at  once  most  wisely  used. 

So  it  is  with  all  Christian  institutions.  Growth  and  expansion 
are  native  to  them  all,  because  the  life  of  God  is  in  them.  So  it 
has  been  with  the  Church  itself ;  always  aspiring,  from  the  cata- 
combs to  the  throne ;  from  the  small  school,  or  the  no-school,  to 
the  great  university ;  from  the  few  converts  at  Corinth  or  Rome, 
to  the  vast  and  cultured  populations  of  Christendom.  So  it  is 
with  foreign  missions,  which  are  only  the  Church  Militant :  Chris- 
tianity in  action.  The  Church  Militant  is  ever  looking  on  to  becom- 
ing the  Church  Triumphant.  The  Board,  by  the  instinct  which 
essentially  belongs  to  it,  must  ever  increase  its  work.  It  will  never 
be  satisfied  with  what  it  has  done.  It  will  always  be  of  Paul's 
mind  :  "  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect;  but  forgetting  the  past,  I  press  forward  toward  the  prize." 
And  the  question  which  continually  meets  us  is.  How  is  this 
progress  to  be  secured  ?  As  I  have  sat  in  these  meetings,  and 
heard  the  excellent  papers  on  the  work,  the  diapason  thundering 
beneath  every  thought  has  been,  How  shall  we  raise  the  resources 
for  our  needs?  There  is  money  enough  in  the  country,  and  in 
the  churches.  Meetings  like  this  are  good,  but  their  effects  are 
after  all  local  and  personal.     On  what  shall  we  depend  in  the 


THE  INSPIRATION   TO  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  77 

minds  of  Christians  for  steadfast  support,  and  an  ever-enlarging 
increase  of  power  for  grander  work  ? 

First,  there  must  be  a  clear  discernment  of  the  aim  which  the 
Board  has  before  it :  to  make  the  heavenly  life,  in  its  felicity  and 
wisdom,  universal  throughout  the  world.  The  spiritual  work  is 
always  primary  and  sovereign.  All  other  benefits  come  in  sure 
sequence.  Social  and  secular  progress  must  be  seen  to  follow 
the  Christian  Gospel  by  even  the  blindest.  An  infidel,  who  reads 
the  papers  of  to-day,  cannot  but  see  it.  Where  the  Bible  goes, 
schools  go,  more  charming  and  stately  houses,  literatures,  the 
useful  arts,  as  a  matter  of  course.  Where  the  sense  of  personal 
relationship  to  God  through  Christ  is  inspired,  there  is  quick- 
ened a  wholly  new  sense  of  human  dignity,  and  right.  Men 
quarrel  with  the  statement  that  every  man  shall  give  account  of 
himself  unto  God.  It  is,  in  fact,  God's  testimony  to  the  royalty  of 
human  nature;  the  message  of  deliverance  from  earthly  thral- 
dom ;  the  charter  of  individual  independence,  as  toward  human 
institutions.  Christianity  is  to  be  the  architect  of  the  new  earth, 
and  to  fill  the  world  with  light  and  liberty.  Every  statesman,  and 
forecasting  publicist,  is  most  seriously  bound  to  take  account  of 
that  continuing  and  invincible  fact.  The  spread  of  the  Gospel 
is  demanded  by  its  economic  effects,  and  if  only  for  these  it 
would  repay  our  largest  effort. 

But  our  aim  is  far  more  vital  and  vast  than  this,  toward  sub- 
limer  and  diviner  effects.  It  is  to  brighten  humanity  by  making 
the  heavenly  temper  universal  among  men ;  to  make  every  house 
on  earth  a  Christian  home,  and  every  community  a  Christian 
community,  —  a  unified,  vital,  social  organization.  Do  you  say 
this  is  "  a  day-dream  of  the  devout !  "  But  remember  that  every- 
thing in  the  world  grandest  in  its  history  has  been  first  a  day- 
dream, and  only  long  afterward  an  accomplished  fact.  "  Paradise 
Lost"  was  a  day-dream  before  it  was  a  poem.  St.  Peter's  was  a 
day-dream  before  Angelo  hung  the  Pantheon  in  the  air.  So  was 
the  unification  of  Italy,  a  free  Church  in  a  free  State ;  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery ;  the  first  missions ;  the  Reformation.  The  ideal 
is  the  only  thing  which  under  the  rule  of  God  is  sure  to  be  real- 
ized in  the  on-going  history  of  mankind.     It  has  been  the  ideal 


yS  THE    VISION  OF  CHRIST 

in  God's  mind,  from  the  outset,  that  the  heavenly  life  should 
finally  become  the  dominant  experience  throughout  the  earth,  until 
earth  and  Heaven  shall  blend  at  the  horizon,  and  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem,  descending  out  of  Heaven  from  God,  shall  appear 
among  men.  This  issue  is  coming,  in  the  end.  The  stupendous 
majesty  of  the  ideal  is  its  immortal  guaranty.  It  is  no  more  cer- 
tain that  sunshine  and  rain,  and  the  silver  multitudes  of  the  dew, 
will  paint  flowers  and  ripen  the  autumn  grain  and  orchard  fruits, 
than  that  Christian  missions  will  have  this  majestic  outcome.  We 
may  not  hope  to  see  the  final  effect  from  earthly  levels  ;  but  we 
shall  see  them  from  celestial  lands,  and  may  humbly  and  joyfully 
say :  "  I  struggled  for  these,  with  all  my  will,  in  spirit  and  in 
prayer." 

Secular  progress  is  bearing  on  this  magnificent  consummation, 
we  do  not  by  any  means  realize  how  fast.  When  the  first  mis- 
sionary letter  came  to  this  country  from  India,  in  171 7,  it  came  to 
Cotton  Mather,  directed  to  him  at  "  Boston,  West  Indies."  It 
came  from  the  first  Protestant  European  missionary  in  Asia  —  I 
think,  a  Moravian.  Mather  answered  it,  and  sent  also  a  gift  of 
money  and  books,  contributed,  it  is  believed,  by  Harvard  College. 
A  significant  fact  to  us  is  that  his  letter  and  gifts  were  fourteen 
months  in  reaching  India.  The  missionary  who  had  first  written 
had  died  before  they  reached  his  station.  To-day,  less  than  a 
month  would  be  needed.  To-day,  China  and  Japan  are  nearer 
this  place  than  Nova  Scotia  was  then.  This  village  (as  it  was 
twenty-five  years  since),  this  prosperous  and  delightful  city  of  to- 
day, is  almost  in  touch  with  the  Pacific  Islands.  All  this  has  a 
magnificent  moral  significance.  All  the  inventions  and  explora- 
tions of  the  age  are  to  be  of  use  in  the  advancement  of  the  one 
Divine  World-Religion.  Railways  saved  this  nation  in  the 
Civil  War.  Railways,  telegraphs,  presses,  mines,  with  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  behind  them,  have  hfted  it  to  leadership  among  the 
republics  of  the  world.  They  have  made  possible,  also,  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe,  a  power  of  public  opinion  which  shapes 
policies,  governs  governments,  which  the  Czar  himself  feels,  which 
the  Pope  discerns  and  seeks  to  guide  and  control.  And  these 
same  physical  instruments  bear  mightily  on  the  advance  of  Christ's 


THE  INSPIRATION   TO  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  79 

kingdom.  Do  not  mistake  me.  They  are  merely  instruments  of 
spiritual  progress.  They  no  more  directly  produce  it  than  glasses 
give  wisdom,  or  crutches  strength.  But  we  are  to  use  them  with 
a  just  sense  of  their  moral  relations,  and  their  spiritual  signifi- 
cance. When  Columbus  picked  up  this  hemisphere  out  of  the 
seas  on  the  way,  as  he  thought,  to  India,  in  more  than  one  sense 
he  opened  the  way  to  a  New  World.  When,  next  year,  we  cele- 
brate his  discovery,  we  shall  almost  hear  the  chimes  of  the  new 
era  ringing  in  the  air. 

As  we  think  how  the  Divine  interposition  has  appeared  in  the 
development  of  affairs  in  our  own  country,  we  should  have  as 
perfect  a  confidence  in  Providence  as  we  have  that  the  universe 
will  not  split,  or  the  stars  fall  from  their  poise.  Then  we  shall 
feel  ourselves  moving  in  the  line  of  the  march  of  God's  cosmical 
purpose.  Then  we  shall  see  that  such  national  changes,  and  such 
physical  instruments,  are  the  Divine  levers  to  lift  the  race  for- 
ward. They  are  the  revolving  wheels  beneath  Messiah's  throne ; 
the  wings  and  trumpet  of  the  angel  who  shall  proclaim  to  all  the 
earth  the  message  of  immortal  love  !  Then  an  indestructible 
courage  will  be  in  us,  and  we  shall  already  forecast  the  future. 
What  the  whole  trend  of  the  world's  movement  points  to  may  be 
stayed,  but  it  cannot  possibly  be  brought  to  naught. 

But  our  great  need,  the  great  need  of  all  Christians,  is  the  ever- 
clearer  discernment  of  the  Son  of  God  as  leader  in  this  mighty 
work.  We  need  this  vision  of  God  in  Christ.  The  martyrs  had 
it  —  Irenaeus,  Perpetua,  and  all  the  others ;  that  slave  girl,  Blan- 
dina,  who,  as  Renan  says,  destroyed  slavery  and  emancipated  her 
sex,  by  fearless  endurance  of  excruciating  tortures.  The  foremost 
missionaries  of  our  own  time  have  had  it.  We  have  seen  it  our- 
selves reflected  from  the  faces  of  the  dying,  and  from  the  eyes 
and  lips  of  the  living.  In  this  vision  of  the  Lord  is  to  be  our 
chiefest  and  constant  inspiration  to  missionary  work ;  not  in 
theological  doctrine  alone,  important  as  that  is,  but  in  such  doc- 
trine unified,  vitalized,  glorified,  in  the  cross  and  crown  of  Christ ; 
not  in  altruistic  sentiments  of  charity,  useful  as  these  may  be  in 
their  place  ;  but  in  such  sentiments  ingenerated  by  Christ,  made 
passionate  by  him,  and   pushed   into   action   for   his   sake.     Of 


8o  THE    VISION  OF  CHRIST 

course  many  things  militate  to-day  against  our  attainment  of  this 
vivid  and  transforming  view  of  God  in  Christ.  Our  life  is  rapid, 
crowded  with  affairs,  intensely  occupied  with  multitudes  of  cares  ; 
there  is  little  room  for  meditation  and  prayer.  But  we  are 
helped,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  widening  and  more  attentive 
study  of  the  story  of  the  evangelists.  Christ  in  history  appears 
more  distinctly  with  every  year.  The  churches,  too,  begin  to 
recognize  that  their  great  need  is  unity  in  Christ. 

It  will  not  come  through  external  organizations,  whose  ulti- 
mate effect  is  mechanical,  not  moral.  It  will  not  come  through 
bishops,  whatever  their  titles  may  be,  or  their  ornamented  vest- 
ments. I  certainly  have  great  expectation  concerning  that  mag- 
nificent Christian  man  and  teacher  consecrated  yesterday  in 
Boston.  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  aim  of  his  work, 
and  its  effect,  will  be  to  advance  unity,  spiritual  power,  a  grander 
progress  among  all  the  churches  in  this  State ;  and  I  no  more 
anticipate  that  he  will  condescend,  as  some  others  have  done,  to 
fanciful  puerilities  of  dress  than  that  one  of  your  grand  Berkshire 
elms  will  put  on  pantalettes  !  But  it  is  in  Christ,  alone,  that  we 
are  to  gain  true  unity  in  the  Church,  with  a  commanding,  inspiring 
zeal ;  and  this  appears  where  we  may  not  always  have  thought  to 
look  for  it.  No  man  here  is  further  from  Roman  Catholicism 
than  I,  yet  I  often  pick  up  CathoHc  prayer  books  and  turn  to  the 
Golden  Litany,  to  which  all  other  litanies  seem  comparatively 
superficial  and  weak.  Of  course,  I  cannot  repeat  it  verbally,  but 
some  of  its  petitions  are  instantly  recalled  :  "  By  the  cold  crib  in 
which  thou  didst  lay,  have  mercy  upon  us ;  By  thy  flight  into 
Egypt,  and  all  the  pains  thou  didst  suffer  there ;  By  thy  holy  bap- 
tism, and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  Holy  Trinity;  By  thy 
thirst,  hunger,  cold  and  heat,  in  this  vale  of  misery ;  By  thy  won- 
derful signs  and  miracles ;  By  the  inward  and  great  heaviness 
which  thou  hadst  when  praying  in  the  Garden ;  By  the  spitting 
on  thee,  and  the  scourging;  By  thy  purple  garments,  and  thy 
crown  of  thorns ;  By  the  nailing  of  thy  right  hand  to  the  cross, 
and  the  shedding  of  thy  most  precious  blood  ;  By  the  nailing  of 
thy  left  hand,  and  that  most  holy  wound,  —  purge,  enlighten,  and 
reconcile  us  to  God  !     By  the  lifting  up  of  thy  most  holy  body 


THE  INSPIRA  TION   TO  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  8  I 

on  the  cross ;  By  the  bitterness  of  thy  death,  and  its  intolerable 
pains;  By  thy  glorious  resurrection,  in  body  and  soul;  By  thy 
wonderful  and  glorious  ascension ;  Have  mercy  upon  us  !  For 
the  glory,  and  the  Divine  Majesty  and  Virtue  of  thy  Holy  Name, 
save  us,  and  govern  us,  now  and  ever  !  " 

I  read  these  sentences  with  others,  from  this  marvelous  Litany, 
and  I  touch  the  flaming  heart  of  all  that  has  been  best  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  I  cease  to  be  amazed  by  the  heroic 
self-devotion  of  Francis  of  Assisi,  of  Xavier,  or  of  Raymond 
LuUy.  We  need  the  same  vision  of  God  in  Christ.  There  only 
do  we  face  that  element  of  self-sacrifice  which  in  Him  is  eternal 
and  supreme. 

God  suffered  no  self-sacrifice  in  planning  the  universe,  or  set- 
ting the  stars  in  their  places,  or  giving  the  seas  their  bounds. 
But  when  he  gives  up  his  Son  for  the  redemption  of  the  world, 
we  see  how  much  he  cares  for  us  !  When  we  know  this  unspeak- 
able self-sacrifice,  what  a  joy  it  is  to  be  a  co-worker  with  God  ! 
What  a  magnificent  courage  is  born  within  us,  which  fears  no  ob- 
stacle, quails  at  no  danger,  and  marches  always  to  the  sound  of 
the  enemy's  cannon  !  This  time  is  critical ;  as  much  so  as  when 
the  barbaric  hordes,  your  ancestors  and  mine,  came  down  upon 
Rome ;  as  critical  as  when  this  continent  was  settled.  It  is  a 
vastly  critical  time  in  the  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom,  with  all 
the  world  uprising  before  us,  with  wealth  enough,  and  men 
enough  to  meet  the  need,  with  only  the  Spirit  to  use  them  want- 
ing. Let  us  settle  it  in  our  minds,  dear  friends,  that  the  world 
is  not  to  be  converted  to  God  by  good  people  sitting  in  pews  and 
listening  to  sermons,  even  the  best,  or  sitting  in  rocking-chairs 
and  reading  good  books.  The  work  is  vast,  difficult,  but  pos- 
sible ;  a  work  that  calls  for  the  labor  of  enthusiasm,  for  prayer 
and  tears,  for  sweat-drops,  and  perhaps,  for  blood-drops.  Con- 
tributions of  money  are  not  enough.  Our  very  life  must  be  in  it, 
in  the  temper  of  the  Divine  self-sacrifice  !  But  what  a  privilege 
and  joy  thus  to  work  in  it,  with  God  himself,  and  all  the  saintliest 
spirits  of  the  earth,  now  and  aforetime  !  Is  it  not  the  grandest 
testimony  to  the  magnificence  of  human  nature  that  God  has 
made  us  co-workers,  not  in  the  primary  work  of  creation,  but  in 


82  THE    VISION  OF  CHRIST. 

the  far  grander  work  of  redeeming  the  world  !  In  this  work  we 
can  make  our  lives  luminous  in  this  world,  and  bright  forever  with 
a  celestial  glory  in  the  next.  Dear  friends,  may  God  bring  us, 
with  all  our  souls,  to  this  work  now,  and  to  that  crown  hereafter  ! 
and  unto  Him  be  all  the  praise  ! 


V. 

iS>\xt  Countr^'jS  Cttbute  to  tl^e  motW^ 
CftifU?atton* 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING  AT  CHICAGO,  1892. 


OUR  COUNTRY'S  TRIBUTE  TO  THE 
WORLD'S  CIVILIZATION. 


My  Dear  Christian  Friends:  It  is  too  often  my  misfortune 
to  be  called  upon  for  this  annual  address  at  the  end  of  a  day,  or 
of  several  days,  constantly  occupied  with  matters  claiming  close 
attention,  and  so  to  come  before  those  whom  I  have  the  honor 
and  pleasure  to  address,  with  tired  voice,  with  brain  somewhat 
weary,  and  with  every  nerve  shivering  under  the  weight  which 
it  has  had  to  carry.  And  this  day  has  been  to  me,  as  you  know, 
perhaps,  one  of  specially  exacting  and  exhausting  duties ;  so  that 
I  feel  myself  quite  unfit  to  present  to  you  this  evening  such 
trains  of  thought  as  I  have  in  my  mind,  in  the  way  in  which  I 
should  have  been  glad  to  present  them. 

But  there  were  some  things  suggested  to  me  the  other  day  by 
the  very  brilliant  and  generous  address  of  welcome  to  the  Board 
which  was  made  by  one  of  your  city  pastors,  which  have  had  an 
interest  to  my  own  mind,  and  may  perhaps  have  to  some  of  yours. 
When  Dr.  Gunsaulus  spoke  of  the  meeting  of  the  Board  in  this 
city  this  year  as  a  fitting  prelude  to  the  great  Columbian  Exposition, 
which  you  are  about  soon  to  dedicate,  I  felt  that  he  had,  perhaps, 
in  the  ardor  of  his  generosity,  done  us  too  much  honor ;  that  it  was 
bringing  a  comparatively  small  thing  into  association  with  that 
which  is  to  be  magnificent  in  its  extent,  in  the  variety  which  will 
belong  to  it,  and  in  the  splendor  which  will  be  its  own.  Yet,  as 
I  have  thought  of  it  since,  I  have  felt  that  there  was  a  more 
direct  connection  than  I  had  at  first  apprehended  between  the 
two  events  —  the  coming  of  the  American  Board  to  Chicago,  and 
the  opening  of  this  great  Exposition  of  the  world's  industry  and 
production.  For  the  discovery  of  this  continent  was  not  only  a 
sublime  event  in  human  history,  by  which  that  history  has  always 
since  been  essentially  modified,  but  it  was  an  event  which  came 


86  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

in  the  Divine  Providence,  not  by  accident,  not  simply  through 
the  enterprise  and  courage  of  an  individual  man.  It  was  not  an 
unrelated  event.  It  went  back  in  its  relations  for  at  least  400 
years,  as  long  a  period  as  has  intervened  since  its  accomplish- 
ment. It  went  back,  certainly,  to  the  initiation  of  the  Crusades, 
at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  at  the  Council  of  Clermont, 
under  the  Pontificate  of  Urban  II.  For  there,  and  in  the  move- 
ments of  Crusade  which  followed  for  almost  200  years,  Europe 
and  Asia  were  brought  face  to  face,  as  they  never  had  been  before. 
The  mind  of  Europe  was  expanded,  and  its  knowledge  of  the  East 
was  immensely  increased.  Thence  came  the  impulse  to  travel  in 
the  East,  on  the  part  of  Marco  Polo  and  others,  after  the  Crusades, 
in  order  to  ascertain  more  particularly  the  characteristics  of  that 
till  then  almost  unknown  part  of  the  world.  We  are  not  to  forget 
that  it  was  in  his  effort  to  reach  beyond  the  Atlantic  to  the  lands 
which  Marco  Polo  and  others  had  visited  and  described,  that 
Columbus  picked  up  this  continent  on  the  way. 

It  was  an  event  which,  as  I  need  not  say,  has  had  immense 
relations  to  all  the  subsequent  civilized  history  on  either  side  of 
the  ocean.  It  gave  vast  stimulus  to  the  entire  European  mind, 
wherever  the  tidings  of  the  marvelous  discovery  were  carried. 
In  the  nature  of  the  case  it  must  have  done  this  ;  for  it  was  as  if  the 
moon  were  to  be  dropped  to-night  within  twenty  miles  of  our 
streets,  and  we  were  to  be  put  in  communication  with  it !  Here 
was  another  hemisphere,  on  this  side  of  the  water,  brought  to  the 
recognition  and  attention  of  Europe,  with  its  strange  natural 
scenery,  with  its  strange  natural  products,  with  its  strange  dusky 
figures  flitting  across  the  landscapes  that  loomed  dimly  before  the 
European  eyes.  No  other  force  so  educational  has  belonged  to 
any  physical  fact  since  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
under  the  Germanic  hosts.  No  event  can  occur,  now  or  hereafter, 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  that  can  exert  so  stimulating  a  power 
upon  those  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  it  is  brought.  It  was  as  if 
we  were  enabled  now,  sailing  safely  through  the  air,  to  encompass 
the  globe  on  our  flight  within  twenty  hours,  and  make  ourselves 
familiar,  by  immediate  personal  inspection,  with  every  part  of  it 
in  that  space  of  time.     Therefore  there  came  naturally,  not  artifi- 


TO    THE    WORLD'S   CIVILIZATION.  87 

daily,  in  sequence  from  the  amazing  discovery,  the  great  reforma- 
tion of  religion  in  the  following  century.  The  relations  between 
the  two  events,  the  one  physical  and  the  other  moral,  are  still 
possible  to  be  traced  in  a  degree,  although  they  cannot  now  be 
fully  interpreted.  Every  movement  in  Europe,  toward  expanded 
enterprise,  toward  widened  and  augmented  liberty,  toward  more 
general  education,  has  had  relation  as  well  to  that  immense  and 
sovereign  fact. 

On  this  side  of  the  ocean,  of  course,  we  know  that  everything 
in  the  way  of  civilized  progress  has  been  conditioned  upon  that 
event.  The  civilization  of  the  Old  World  immediately  began  to 
be  transported  to  the  New ;  and  this  nation  of  ours,  which  is 
almost  entering  the  last  quarter  of  its  third  century,  was  absolutely 
conditioned  upon  that  discovery.  The  hour  struck,  then,  of  the 
new  era  in  the  world  history,  when  land  was  sighted  after  the  toil- 
some and  perilous  voyage.  This  nation  came  into  existence  from 
the  thought  of  God  then,  as  it  evidently  had  been  purposed  by 
his  forecasting  mind  long  before  our  ancestors  settled  upon  these 
shores. 

So  this  event  which  you  are  to  celebrate  in  this  great  Exposi- 
tion a  week  or  two  hence,  when  it  is  to  be  dedicated,  and  months 
hence  when  it  is  to  be  opened,  is  only  to  be  interpreted,  either 
religiously  or  philosophically,  as  an  immense  sudden  step  forward 
in  the  movement  of  Divine  Providence  towards  the  final  ideal  for 
the  world.  It  is  to  be  lifted  out  of  all  the  lower  relations  'in 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  it,  and  to  be  set,  enthroned 
and  glorious,  in  that  scheme  of  Divine  Providence  which  is 
steadily  and  majestically  accomplishing  its  purpose  for  the  earth. 
There  is  an  ideal  in  the  divine  mind  concerning  the  world  and 
the  race  of  mankind.  We  cannot  doubt  it,  for  it  shines  before  us  on 
both  the  Testaments  of  the  Bible,  —  as  clearly  in  the  Old  Testament 
as  in  the  New.  That  magnificent  ideal  comprehends  every  inter- 
est and  every  individual  of  the  human  race.  It  looks  for  individ- 
ual souls  made  perfect  in  wisdom  and  love  and  holy  charity,  in 
heavenly  aspiration  and  celestial  purpose.  It  looks  for  every 
household  to  be  filled  with  the  light  and  power  and  beauty  of  the 
Christian  faith.     It  looks  for  whole  nations  dwelling  in  righteous- 


88  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

ness  within  their  own  borders,  and  so  in  peace  and  in  charity 
toward  all  other  nations  associated  with  them.  It  looks  toward  a 
redeemed  and  reconciled  race,  perfected  in  the  beauty  of  holiness, 
consecrated  to  the  divine  service,  and  passing  from  the  earth, 
which  it  blesses  and  adorns,  to  the  heavens  which  open  to  receive  it. 
This  is  the  ideal  of  God  concerning  the  earth  and  mankind ; 
and  the  very  majesty  and  purity,  the  luminous  vastness  of  it,  are 
proof  of  the  truth  that  the  Scripture,  in  which  it  is  presented  to 
us,  has  come  from  God.  The  Egyptian  reared  the  pyramids,  and 
wrought  the  colossal  Sphinx  ;  he  accomplished  great  architectural 
works,  and  was  learned  in  the  ancient  wisdom.  The  Greek  was 
cultured,  full  of  fine  fancy,  full  of  noble  faculty.  The  Roman  had 
the  power  to  conquer  the  world,  and  subdue  all  armed  opposition 
to  himself.  But  neither  the  Greek,  nor  the  Roman,  nor  the  Egyp- 
tian, ever  conceived  this  supreme  ideal  of  a  holy  race  on  a  puri- 
fied earth.  Each  of  them  looked  to  an  imperfect  race  in  the 
consummation  of  history,  over  which  their  power  might  be 
exerted,  into  which  their  ideas  might  be  infused,  more  or  less 
fully,  but  which  would  remain  imperfect  and  fragmentary  to  the 
end  of  time.  Here  is  the  one  ideal,  supreme  and  sublime,  which 
looks  to  a  regenerated  race,  on  a  regenerated  planet.  Where  did 
it  come  from?  From  among  those  Jewish  people  who  were 
exiled  from  Egypt,  who  were  untouched  by  Greek  culture,  who 
were  simply  beaten  into  the  dust  by  the  Roman  Empire,  who 
were  almost  wholly  excluded  from  any  control  of  the  world. 
Where  did  they  get  it  ?  Do  you  tell  me  they  found  it  in  their 
own  wisdom  and  wit?  You  might  as  well  tell  me  that  the  Par- 
thenon, the  most  majestic  structure  of  the  noblest  architecture  of 
the  world,  its  consummate  flower,  was  built  by  monkeys.  You 
might  as  well  tell  me  that  the  Iliad  came  from  the  croaking  of 
frogs ;  that  yonder  sun,  in  whose  glory  we  have  been  rejoicing  all 
these  days,  was  built  and  gilded  in  some  human  workshop,  and 
shunted  into  space  through  a  side  window.  No ;  it  came  from 
God,  and  could  have  come  from  no  one  else.  I  do  not  care  for 
the  higher  criticism,  or  the  lower  criticism,  or  the  intermediate 
criticism,  or  any  other  sort  of  criticism.  When  I  look  at  this 
supreme  ideal  in  the  ancient  Scripture,  I  know  that  the  divine 


TO    THE    WORLD'S   CIVILIZATION.  89 

mind  was  in  it,  and  that  it  comes  to  illuminate  us  from  the  Spirit 
who  is  the  source  of  all  light  and  power  in  the  universe. 

Then  it  is  in  the  light  of  this  majestic  ideal  that  we  are  to  inter- 
pret the  whole  gospel.  Here  it  finds  its  illustration  and  explica- 
tion to  our  minds.  I  never  marvel  that  men  of  the  world,  men 
looking  from  the  base-line  of  philosophical  analysis,  find  it  diffi- 
cult, and  perhaps  impossible,  to  accept  the  marvelous  stories  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  mira- 
cles so  familiarly  accomplished  by  him,  the  tone  of  authority  in 
which  he  revised  the  ancient  law,  his  suffering  on  the  cross,  his 
resurrection  from  the  grave  and  ascension  into  heaven,  the  subse- 
quent coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost,  —  I  admit  that, 
looked  at  without  reference  to  the  end  to  be  accomplished,  these 
things  are  too  superlatively  great  to  be,  I  had  almost  said  con- 
ceived, certainly  to  be  understood,  perhaps  too  great  to  be 
accepted.  But  I  look  at  all  this  work  with  reference  to  the  sub- 
lime end  to  be  accomplished,  and  I  expect  thenceforth  the 
element  of  miracle  to  enter  into  it.  We  frame  a  vast  and  power- 
ful engine  for  vast  and  mighty  work.  We  do  not  expect  to  tunnel 
the  mountains  with  a  watch  spring ;  we  do  not  expect  to  drive  a 
steamboat  over  the  sea  with  a  jet  of  gas.  These  are  useful  in 
their  place,  and  for  their  purpose ;  but  we  want  the  mighty 
engine  when  the  mighty  work  is  to  be  performed,  when  the  way 
is  to  be  tunneled  through  the  roots  of  the  mountains,  along  which 
the  commerce  and  the  travel  of  the  world  may  follow.  We  want 
the  mighty  engine,  when  we  are  to  drive  the  tremendous  hull 
across  the  sea,  trampling  the  riotous  waves  into  a  floor,  and 
making  the  distant  port  with  the  certainty  almost  of  the  stars  in 
their  courses.  We  do  not  build  a  palace  for  the  nursery,  but  we 
build  it  for  the  great  imperial  councils  and  pageantries  which  are 
to  be  associated  with  it.  You  have  not  built  yonder  stately  struc- 
tures on  the  lake  shore  for  a  kindergarten,  or  a  machine  shop. 
You  have  erected  them  to  house  in  them  the  treasures  of  the 
world,  which  are  expected  to  come  here  next  year.  And  so  God, 
with  this  majestic  ideal  before  his  mind,  gave  a  redemption  ade- 
quate to  the  work  to  be  accomplished  by  it.  And  when  I  think 
of  the  end,  the  whole  amazing  story  of  the  Master  is  illumined  to 


90  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

my  mind.  There  is  not  one  miracle  too  many,  there  is  not  one 
sacrifice  too  vast,  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  illustrious  divine 
plan. 

So  all  the  subsequent  movement  of  God  in  his  providence  on 
the  earth  is  in  like  manner  illumined  to  us,  when  we  see  towards 
what  it  has  been  from  every  direction  converging.  The  formation 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  bringing  of  all  peoples  under  one 
dominion,  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman  Empire  before  the  Ger- 
manic hosts,  and  the  formation  of  the  Christian  states  of  medieval 
and  of  modern  Europe,  —  these  take  illustration,  and  illumination, 
from  this  vast  plan  of  the  Most  High.  In  later  times,  the  bring- 
ing of  India  under  British  rule,  the  lifting  of  Australia  toward  the 
independent  Christian  life  and  power  which  it  is  soon  fully  to 
attain,  the  opening  of  China  and  Japan  and  Africa,  and  the  build- 
ing u{)  of  this  nation  for  the  purposes  of  God  in  the  earth  —  a 
building-up  only  made  possible  by  the  discovery  of  this  continent 
four  hundred  years  ago  —  all  these  things  illustrate  to  us  God's 
intervention,  silent  but  directive,  mighty  and  irresistible,  in  the 
movement  of  human  affairs  toward  the  end  to  which  I  have 
referred,  and  which  the  Scripture  so  sublimely  sets  before  us. 
There  has  been  a  sense  of  this  in  this  nation,  since  the  beginning. 
The  fathers  felt  that  they  were  sent  here  and  planted,  for  a  divine 
purpose  and  a  divine  work.  The  same  conviction  was  in  their 
spirits  when  they  were  facing  the  French  and  the  Indians  in 
those  savage  wars  which  scathed  the  frontier  with  fire,  and 
drenched  it  with  blood.  The  same  tone  speaks  forth  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary struggle.  Men  could  not  and  would  not  give  up  that 
struggle,  continued  through  seven  years,  and  they  would  have 
protracted  it  through  seventy  years,  if  it  had  been  necessary, 
because  they  felt  that  there  was  a  purpose  for  the  nation  to 
accomplish,  which  could  not  be  accomplished  except  through 
their  success  in  that  prolonged  and  fateful  fight.  The  same  thing 
is  seen,  as  well,  in  the  sudden  wiping  out  of  slavery  in  this  coun- 
try, in  the  sudden  building  up  of  a  vast  Christian  empire  along  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific.  All  God's  purposes  in  providence  have 
been  converging  towards  the  result  which  he  indicates  to  us  in 
his  ancient  Scripture.     As  one  train  starts  from    northern  Wis- 


TO    THE    WORLD'S    CIVILIZATION.  9 1 

consin,  another  from  Minnesota,  another  from  Missouri  or  Dakota, 
another  from  Kentucky,  converging  upon  this  magnificent  city, 
though  starting  from  different  points,  and  pursuing  courses  not 
parallel  with  each  other  but  sometimes  seeming  contradictory 
to  each  other,  so  God's  movements  in  providence  have  all  been 
converging  on  that  result  which  is  ever  before  his  eternal  mind. 

So  it  is  that  the  discovery  of  this  continent,  as  I  have  said,  was 
a  providential  fact — immense,  full  of  significance,  vast  in  its 
relation  to  the  progress  of  mankind,  appearing  properly  at  that 
precise  time  when  it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world. 

I  have  no  authority  to  commit  this  Board  to  anything,  and  I 
certainly  do  not  wish  to  commit  it  on  a  question  of  history.  But 
I  can  say  for  myself,  not  as  President  but  as  an  individual,  that  I 
fully  believe  that  the  Northmen  found  this  continent,  and  lived 
on  it,  half  a  millennium  before  Columbus  ever  discovered  it  or  its 
outlying  islands.  [Applause.]  But  the  knowledge  of  the  conti- 
nent thus  acquired  was  mysteriously  wrenched  back  from  the 
European  mind.  It  lives  in  the  Icelandic  sagas,  and  in  some  of 
the  stories  and  songs  of  the  Norwegians ;  but  Europe  at  large 
failed  to  retain  the  fact  in  its  memory  or  thought.  As  far  as  I 
know,  it  is  the  only  great  fact  that  has  ever  been  brought  to  the 
human  mind  in  Europe  and  elsewhere,  which  has  suddenly  and 
mysteriously  been  withdrawn  from  it,  and  no  more  retained.  The 
time  had  not  come ;  the  printing  press  was  not  here ;  the  era 
immediately  preceding  the  Reformation  had  not  arrived  ;  and  so 
God  plucked  back  that  stupendous  fact  from  the  knowledge  of 
Europe,  that  it  might  wait  to  be  made  clear,  again,  after  the  pre- 
liminary preparations  had  been  completed.  Then  it  came  to 
light ;  and  so  God's  providence  was  shown  to  us  vividly,  visibly 
one  might  almost  say,  in  the  discovery  when  it  was  made. 

Now  that  has  had  relation,  as  I  have  said,  to  all  subsequent 
history,  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  It  has  had  its  immense 
bearing  on  the  entire  development  of  God's  plan  for  the  world ; 
and  especially  it  has  given  direction  to  this  nation,  which  he  so 
marvelously  planned,  so  wonderfully  trained,  and  has  so  wonder- 
fully enriched,  in  order  that  he  might  make  it  a  nation  to  his 
praise  and  honor  in  all  the  earth. 


92  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

And  so  the  question  comes  to  us  with  instant  urgency,  What 
have  we  done,  as  a  nation,  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  divine  plan  ? 
for  carrying  out  the  purposes  manifested  in  the  discovery  of  the 
continent  at  the  point  when  it  was  brought  to  light?  Well,  we 
have  done  some  things.  We  know  what  the  political  influence 
of  this  nation  has  been  —  how  it  reached  into  France,  for  exam- 
ple, which  sent  help  to  us  in  our  struggle  with  Great  Britain.  We 
know  how  the  spirit  of  liberty  went  back  into  France,  and  quick- 
ened there  the  revolution,  and  finally  the  French  Republic  of  the 
present  day,  which  we  all  pray  may  be  more  and  more  purified 
from  error  and  from  vice,  and  made  as  permanent  as  the  conti- 
nent itself.  [Applause.]  We  know  how  the  same  influence  reached 
down  into  Brazil,  and  really  swept  out  of  his  throne  there  the  best 
monarch  who  ever  reigned  or  lived  on  American  soil,  in  either  part 
of  the  hemisphere.  We  know  how  it  extended  into  Italy ;  how  it  has 
reached  even,  fitfully  and  intermittently,  into  Spain,  We  know  the 
political  influence  extended  in  the  world  by  our  example  of 
prosperity  and  power,  and  of  freedom  as  the  basis  of  both.  We 
know  something  of  our  inventive  influence,  and  of  the  industrial 
movements  set  in  motion  by  this  nation.  The  telegraph,  the 
telephone,  the  typewriter,  the  sewing  machine,  the  steam-plows 
and  reapers  which  you  know  something  of  in  Chicago  and  its 
neighborhood,  the  elevators  that  are  pushing  your  city  higher  and 
higher  towards  the  sun,  —  we  know  how  these  have  gone  into  the 
world.  We  know  how  the  sewing  machine  has  liberated,  to  a 
degree,  the  female  sex  from  the  labors  which  were  so  onerous  and 
so  incessant  in  other  years,  and  in  other  lands  as  well  as  ours. 
We  know  something  of  the  commercial  influence  of  this  country  : 
$845,000,000  of  exports,  and  1^790,000,000  of  imports,  is  the 
record  for  two  years  ago.  How  much  that  means  !  How  many 
ships  it  implies,  set  in  motion  on  every  sea,  how  much  of  the  stir  of 
industry  and  traffic  in  every  civilized  land  to  which  commerce 
and  travel  reach  ! 

We  know  all  these  things;  and  we  know  as  well  —  what  is 
better  than  any  of  these  effects  —  the  moral  effect  which  has  gone 
out  from  this  nation.  This  is  the  supreme  thing  —  the  moral 
effect.     It  is  very  exhilarating,  no  doubt,  to  see  the  headlines  in 


TO    THE    WORLD'S   CIVILIZATION.  93 

the  newspapers,  "Another  victory  for  American  Pork  !  "  [Laugh- 
ter.] But  it  is  a  great  deal  more  exhilarating  to  thoughtful  men 
to  see  some  intimation  of  another  victory  for  the  American  spirit 
in  other  lands  [applause]  —  that  spirit  which  belongs  to  this 
nation,  and  which,  by  our  life  as  well  as  by  our  direct  activity,  we 
may  make  general  in  the  world. 

Some  things  have  certainly  been  done  in  this  direction  of 
moral  effect.  I  count  as  a  magnificent  thing  the  essential  purity 
of  American  literature.  No  doubt  there  are  many  mean  and  dis- 
gusting stories  manufactured  and  sold  on  our  shores,  but  the 
prevalent  tone  of  our  literature  is  that  of  purity.  There  is  very 
little  of  that  salacious  stuff  which  belongs  to  the  French  nude 
school,  or  to  that  class  of  literature  represented  by  German 
schemes  of  the  "  Elective  Affinities."  The  authors  known  and 
read  in  this  country,  and  known  and  read  in  other  countries  as 
belonging  to  America,  are  models  of  manly  and  womanly  virtue 
and  purity  —  men  like  Irving,  Cooper,  Bancroft,  Prescott,  Emer- 
son, Hawthorne,  Bryant,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell ;  men  like  those 
who  have  lately  died,  —  Whittier,  the  Quaker  poet,  whose  verses 
march  like  the  tread  of  battalions,  and  over  whose  shining  stanzas 
ring  notes  of  war  and  peans  of  victory ;  Curtis,  who  lately  died,  a 
dear  friend  of  mine  for  many  years,  firm,  gentle,  chivalric,  knightly, 
in  every  fiber  of  his  being.  These,  with  Mrs.  Stowe,  of  unsur- 
passed genius,  and  a  great  many  others  who  are  still  living  among 
us,  represent  American  literature.  Now  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
have  a  literature  which  all  the  world  can  recognize  as  beautiful 
by  reason  of  its  purity,  and  by  reason  of  the  temper  of  fidelity  to 
truth  which  everywhere  pervades  it.  It  is  a  great  thing  that  we 
may  know  and  say  that  whoever  inhales  the  air  of  American  liter- 
ature, inhales  an  atmosphere  without  a  secret  poison  in  it. 

Then  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  made  evident  to  the  world  the 
beauty,  dignity,  and  power,  which  belong  to  womanhood.  You 
remember  that  when  our  first  missionaries  crossed  the  ocean, 
and  were  refused  by  the  British  Government  liberty  to  land  in 
India,  the  two  principal  doctrines  of  the  Hindu  were  the  sanctity 
of  the  Cow  and  the  depravity  of  Woman  !  In  this  country  woman 
has  bad  her  freest  share  of  privilege,  influence,  and  personal  right, 


94  OUE   COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

from  the  beginning.  Woman  stands  signally  before  our  thoughts 
whenever  we  look  back  to  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plym- 
outh shore ;  and  women  have  been  illustrious  in  our  annals  from 
that  day  to  the  present.  Our  boards  of  education  are  open  to 
them.  A  thousand  forms  of  occupation,  that  were  utterly  un- 
known until  this  nation  had  come  to  its  development,  besides 
manifold  professional  activities,  are  open  to  them.  They  have 
their  magnificent  leadership  in  all  social  reform  movements ;  in  all 
movements,  in  fact,  in  which  they  deign  or  delight  to  take  part. 
They  ought  to  have.  The  imaginative  geographers  have  some- 
times said  that  while  the  Old  World,  broad  and  massive,  repre- 
sents the  masculine  element  of  the  earth,  the  new  hemisphere, 
more  delicate  and  shapely  in  its  outline,  figures  the  feminine 
form  on  the  globe.  We  may  remember  that  it  was  by  Isabella's 
patronage  that  Columbus  was  sent  upon  his  way ;  that  it  was  by 
Elizabeth's  patronage  that  the  first  English  colonies  were  estab- 
lished in  this  country.  Two  women  did  more  than  any  others 
towards  the  development  of  everything  that  has  been  conditioned 
here  upon  that  discovery.  The  fact  is,  the  women  own  this 
country  [laughter  and  applause],  and  my  only  wonder  is  that  they 
let  the  men  live  in  it !    [Renewed  laughter.] 

Again,  how  much  has  been  done  for  the  world  by  the  manifes- 
tation of  national  respect  for  universal  education.  It  has  been 
supposed  of  course,  for  centuries,  and  in  many  lands,  and  is  so 
now,  that  education  unfits  the  common  people  for  the  simpler  avo- 
cations of  life,  and  for  the  submission  and  obedience  to  authority 
which  will  make  that  hfe  tranquil.  In  this  country  the  rule  has 
been  to  educate,  from  the  beginning ;  and  it  was  never  more 
energetically  and  fully  carried  out  than  it  is  at  this  time.  The 
13,000,000  children  in  our  public  schools,  between  the  ages  of 
four  and  twenty-one,  the  1^133,000,000  annually  devoted  to  this 
public  education,  the  400  colleges,  the  multitude  of  professional 
and  technical  schools,  the  uncounted  multitude  of  the  higher  sem- 
inaries and  of  the  noble  private  schools  existing  in  the  land  — 
all  show  the  American  respect  for  education  ;  and  that  brings  to  us 
our  tranquillity  and  prosperity.  You,  who  are  voting  citizens  here, 
will  cast  your  votes  pretty  soon  for  the  officers  of  the  government, 


TO    THE    WORLD'S   CIVILIZATION.  95 

for  the  ensuing  four  years.  You  know  beforehand  that  whichever 
party  is  victorious  in  electing  its  candidates,  these  candidates  will 
be  installed  in  their  places  without  a  sign  of  disturbance  in  any 
part  of  the  land.  How  comes  this  ?  Why  is  it  not  so  in  Central 
or  South  America?  It  comes  from  the  prevalent  —  one  might 
almost  say  the  universal  —  education  of  the  people.  They  are 
taught  to  know  their  rights.  And  this  silent  and  quiet  transfer  of 
political  power  over  an  immense  area,  and  for  sixty  odd  millions 
of  people,  is  to  be  accomplished  as  quietly  as  the  lighting  or 
extinguishing  of  the  lamps  in  this  or  any  other  hall  or  church  in 
Chicago.  All  this  tranquillity,  all  this  prosperity,  comes  from  this 
general  education ;  and  the  example  elevates  the  value  and  dig- 
nity of  popular  education  before  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

Then,  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  the  American  spirit  of  intre- 
pidity manifested  as  it  has  been.  It  is  a  lesson  especially  to  those 
who  are  dwelling  in  darkness  and  in  fear,  to  the  desponding  and 
the  despairing  peoples  of  the  earth.  Again  and  again  men  have 
said  to  me  in  Europe,  "  I  believe  you  Americans  are  not  unwill- 
ing to  attempt  anything  !  You  are  ready  to  face  any  danger ;  you 
are  ready  to  conquer  any  obstacle ;  you  tunnel  and  channel  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  until  there  are  no  mountains  left.  You  go 
through  a  tremendous  civil  war,  and  then  dissolve  your  army  into 
the  national  life  until  it  ceases  to  be  recognized ;  you  confront 
the  great  problem  of  slavery  and  emancipation,  and  you  conquer 
in  that."  "Well,"  I  have  said,  "it  is  nothing  but  the  American 
temper,  which  is  a  temper  not  audacious,  not  arrogant  nor  boast- 
ful, but  thoroughly  intrepid.  We  believe  in  the  nation;  we 
believe  in  God's  assistance  to  every  good  work ;  and  we  are  not 
afraid  to  undertake  any  work,  physical,  social,  or  poUtical,  which 
He  puts  in  our  way."  It  is  that  temper  of  intrepidity  which 
brings  representatives  of  all  nations  to  our  shores.  They  want  to 
breathe  the  tonic  ozone  of  the  American  atmosphere. 

So  the  catholicity  of  spirit  in  this  American  temper,  as  well,  is 
a  testimony  to  the  world.  It  comes  in  part,  I  think,  from  the 
fact  that  we  are  all  foreigners  together,  in  one  sense ;  that  is,  our 
ancestors  came  here  at  a  definite  point  in  history,  and  have  not 
lived  here  always,  while  other  populations  have  been  flowing  in 


96  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE 

Upon  us  with  incessant  and  almost  incredible  rapidity.  A  gentle- 
man said  this  morning,  in  yonder  church,  that  Chicago  is  the 
second  Bohemian  city  of  the  world,  in  respect  to  Bohemian  popu- 
lation. Well,  I  beUeve  that  New  York  —  certainly  it  used  to  be,  and 
I  suppose  it  is  so  now  —  is  the  third  German  city  in  respect  to  the 
German  population  resident  in  it.  It  is  said,  you  know,  that 
there  are  one  hundred  languages  spoken  along  the  streets  of  New 
York. 

This  great,  intrepid,  cosmopolitan  American  people  has  thus 
been  signalizing  its  temper  before  the  world,  and  pointing  the 
way  along  which  other  peoples  may  march  to  magnificent  suc- 
cesses. I  hold  it  to  be,  therefore,  a  vast  moral  power  which  has 
been  contributed  from  hence  to  the  world  at  large. 

And,  surely,  there  has  been  a  great  religious  power  going  forth 
as  well.  The  reverence  for  the  Bible  at  which  the  infidel  sneers, 
at  which  the  man  of  the  world  sometimes  smiles  in  derision,  is 
really  characteristic  of  our  nation.  Also  that  reverence  for  the 
Lord's  Day,  which  lately  constrained  the  National  Congress  to 
declare  that  the  doors  of  your  Exposition  should  be  closed  on  the 
Lord's  Day,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  [Applause.]  That 
could  not  have  been  done,  I  take  it,  in  other  nations  of  the  world. 
Possibly  it  might  have  been  done  in  England,  but  certainly  not  in 
France,  and  probably  not  in  Germany.  The  reverence  for  the 
Bible,  and  the  reverence  for  the  Lord's  Day,  belong  to  our 
American  life,  and  are  characteristic  of  our  nation  in  its  prevailing 
spirit,  purpose  and  temper. 

Then  we  have  demonstrated,  for  the  world  to  see  it,  the  power 
of  the  church  to  take  care  of  itself,  without  help  or  interference 
from  the  secular  government  of  the  nation  in  which  the  church  is 
planted.  That  is  a  lesson  which  the  world  will  more  and  more 
take  to  its  heart.  It  has  been  thought,  of  course,  for  ages,  that 
religious  sentiment  and  religious  doctrine  cannot  be  maintained 
among  a  people  except  by  the  aid  of  state  authority ;  that  the 
ministers  of  religion  cannot  be  sustained  except  by  the  aid  of 
state  taxation.  Our  ancestors  brought  that  idea  with  them,  we 
know.  Three  immediate  ancestors  of  mine,  by  blood,  and  in  the 
ministerial  office,  were  each  of  them  settled  in  a  church  where 


TO    THE    WORLirS   CIVILIZATION.  97 

the  pastor  was  called  and  the  salary  was  raised  in  town  meeting. 
We  passed  beyond  that  long  ago  ;  and  we  have  shown  how  power- 
ful religion  is  as  a  force  in  itself,  without  the  least  dependence 
upon  state  assistance.  The  1 20,000  Protestant  congregations  in 
this  country  now,  besides  the  8,000  Catholic  congregations,  the 
immense  amount  of  property  invested  in  church  institutions,  the 
13,000,000  communicants  in  Protestant  churches  —  communi- 
cants multiplying  every  year  in  a  ratio  rising  more  rapidly  than 
the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  the  population  at  large  —  these  show 
what  the  power  of  the  Christian  religion  is,  without  any  crutch  of 
state  assistance,  and  without  any  help  or  hindrance  from  state 
authority.  That  magnificent  maxim  of  the  great  Italian  states- 
man, "  A  free  church  in  a  free  state,"  had  its  inspiration,  as  it  has 
its  illustration,  in  this  nation  of  which  we  are  part,  and  in  whose 
history  God's  providence  has  been  majestically  manifest.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

..  Then  we  have  developed,  as  well,  the  power  of  the  lay-element 
in  the  churches  as  it  has  never  been  known  before.  But  1  will 
not  dwell  upon  that,  it  is  so  wholly  familiar. 

Our  most  direct  contribution  to  help  the  world  forward,  and 
lift  it  into  larger  freedom  and  light,  has  been  in  the  work  of  Chris- 
tian missions.  It  is  this  work  which  stands  in  direct  association 
with  that  great  event  in  providence,  the  sudden  discovery  of  this 
continent,  and  which  merely  carries  toward  its  consummation  and 
full  exhibition  the  plan  which  was  therein  unfolded.  This  is  a 
work  not  carried  on  by  our  Board  alone,  but  carried  on  by  num- 
bers of  boards  affiliated  with  us  in  affectionate  sympathy  and  mutual 
confidence  ;  working  along  the  same  lines,  toward  the  same  end  \ 
in  the  aggregate  contributing  scores  of  millions  of  dollars  already 
to  the  world's  evangelization  ;  sending  out  not  only  hundreds  but 
thousands  of  consecrated  men  and  women  to  assist  in  this  work ; 
planting  schools  and  printing  presses,  with  hospitals  and  semina- 
ries for  higher  education,  as  well  as  native  churches,  in  all  parts 
of  the  earth ;  lifting  savage  tribes  on  the  rocky  coral  reefs  that  a 
little  while  ago  were  reeking  with  human  gore,  and  echoing  with 
shrieks  of  human  fear  or  human  victory,  into  civilized  and  Chris- 
tian commonwealths.     This  great  work  of  Missions,  which  is  fol- 


98  OUR   COUNTRY'S   TRIBUTE 

lowing  in  the  path  of  the  divine  commission,  absolutely,  and  which 
is  accomplished  under  the  tuition  and  inspiration  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  sets  our  nation  forward,  and  illustrates  afresh  the  plan  of 
God  in  bringing  this  continent  to  light  at  the  moment  when  it 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  civilized  men,  in  building  and  keeping 
this  nation  here,  and  setting  it  forth  on  its  sublime  errand.  This 
is  a  work  in  which  the  heart  and  mind  of  God  must  be  engaged 
—  have  been  engaged  —  from  the  very  outset,  since  first  he 
touched  by  the  motion  of  the  Spirit  the  individual  hearts  from 
which  have  come  these  far-extending  missionary  organizations. 

All  this  work,  you  observe,  was  conditioned  on  that  fact  of  the 
discovery  of  this  continent  at  the  time  when  it  was  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  world.  So  I  say  again,  that  we  are  right  in 
associating  that  magnificent  Exposition  which  is  to  celebrate  this 
great  event  with  this  meeting  of  our  American  Board,  compara- 
tively unknown  and  unimportant,  unattractive  to  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  as  this  meeting  is  when  measured  against  the  superb 
Exposition  which  is  to  be. 

My  dear  friends,  let  us  never  forget  two  things  in  the  light  of 
this  course  of  thought,  so  rapidly  and  so  imperfectly  traced  before 
you  :  One  is,  that  progress  must  be  gradual,  toward  that  majestic 
consummation  which  shed  its  luster  from  afar  on  the  eyes  of  the 
devout  in  what  we  call  the  semi-civilized  tribes  of  Judea  long  ago  ! 
Progress  must  be  gradual.  Men  of  the  world  sometimes  say  deri- 
sively that  ours  is  very  slow.  "  You  say  you  have  30,000  converts. 
What  are  they  among  so  many  ?  You  have  so  many  churches,  and  so 
many  schools ;  but  after  all,  how  little  are  they  in  such  a  vast  multitu- 
dinous population  as  that  of  the  world  ?  "  Well,  my  friend,  will  you 
tell  me  what  great  and  enduring  effect  has  ever  been  realized  in  a 
short  space  of  time  ?  What  city  was  ever  builded  to  its  ultimate 
completeness  in  one  year,  or  in  ten  years?  Your  growth  here  in 
Chicago  has  been  phenomenally  rapid,  and  yet  you  go  back  over 
half  a  century,  and  more,  to  see  the  beginnings  of  your  city-life. 
Will  you  tell  me  what  national  literature  was  ever  developed  to  its 
completeness  in  one  generation,  or  in  five?  Will  you  tell  me 
what  government  was  ever  established  in  equity  and  wisdom, 
even  with  the  heroic  efforts  of  men  who  gave  their  lives  to  its 


TO    THE    WORLD'S   CIVILIZATION. 


99 


service,  in  one  century  or  in  two?  Will  you  tell  me  what  physi- 
cal continent  was  ever  transformed  from  the  rudeness  of  barbar- 
ism to  the  beauty  of  civilization  in  one  century,  or  in  five  ?  Great 
works  imply,  always,  gradual  progress ;  and  nothing  is  more  pre- 
posterous than  to  suppose  that  this  immense,  surpassing  work, 
which  man  says  is  too  great  ever  to  be  accomplished,  is  to  be 
accomplished  within  a  few  generations.  Why,  there  has  to  be  an 
interval  of  ages  between  the  cave  or  the  skin-tent,  or  the  hemlock 
hut,  and  any  one  of  our  modernly  equipped  houses.  There  is  an 
interval  of  ages  between  the  first  attempt  at  a  song  or  a  narrative 
and  the  completed  literature  which  dates  from  that  attempt. 
There  is  an  interval  of  ages  between  the  hollow  log  floating  on  the 
water,  and  the  majestic  steamship  that  unites  the  hemispheres. 
There  is  an  interval  of  ages  between  these  shores  as  they  were 
when  our  ancestors  landed  here,  and  as  they  now  are ;  and  the 
great  Interior  behind  them  has  been  subdued  and  cultivated 
through  many  successive  generations,  until  now  it  blossoms  in 
villages  and  in  cities.  Gradual  progress,  toward  the  mighty  effect,  is 
the  law  everywhere  ;  and  we  are  simply  foolish,  we  simply  enter- 
tain the  most  preposterous  notion  that  can  come  into  the  human 
mind,  if  we  are  offended  because  the  expectation  is  not  realized 
that  in  one  year  or  in  ten  years,  in  one  generation  or  in  five  gen- 
erations, the  work  of  redeeming  the  world  unto  Christ,  and  puri- 
fying it  into  his  holy  beauty,  is  to  be  accomplished. 

But  let  us  also  never  forget  the  final  supreme  fact,  that  God  is 
behind  this  progress,  and  that  it  never  will  cease  till  God  is  dead ; 
—  never  while  omnipotence  has  power ;  never  while  the  divine 
wisdom  foresees  the  end  from  the  beginning;  never  until  the 
divine  heart  is  turned  to  indifference  or  hostility  toward  his  chil- 
dren on  the  earth.  There  is  one  banner  that  never  goes  down  in 
any  battle,  and  that  is  the  banner  of  God's  truth.  There  is  one 
army  that  always  marches  to  success,  and  that  is  the  army  of  the 
Cross.  God  brought  this  continent  to  light  at  exactly  the  right 
moment ;  he  colonized  this  country  with  a  Christian  population,  at 
exactly  the  right  moment;  he  has  carried  us  through  all  perils,  and 
over  every  obstacle,  to  our  present  stage  of  national  development 
and  power,  and  of  Christian  culture  ;  and  his  arm  is  never  weary. 


lOO  OUR    COUNTRY'S    TRIBUTE. 

and  his  heart  is  never  faint.  It  is  as  sure  as  that  he  lives  that  the 
result  at  last  shall  be  accomplished,  and  the  earth  become  the 
abode  of  his  saints,  visited  with  joy  by  angels,  smiled  upon  by 
him  who  baptized  it  unto  himself  in  water  and  in  blood  —  in  the 
tears  which  he  shed,  and  in  the  blood  which  gushed  from  his 
heart !  This  continent  is  not  a  dream  ;  it  is  a  vast  majestic  fact 
in  the  constitution  of  the  globe.  That  realization  of  God's  plan 
to  which  this  is  to  contribute  is  not  a  dream,  not  a  reverie  of  the 
devout.  It  is  a  purpose  of  the  Almighty,  as  certain  to  be  accom- 
plished as  the  stars  are  to  remain  on  their  poise,  as  the  constella- 
tions are  to  maintain  their  sublime  and  shining  configurations. 
Let  us  be  carried  forward  in  all  our  work,  for  the  nation  and 
for  the  world,  by  this  sublime  certainty,  that  God  is  with  us  and 
the  future  is  ours  ! 

Let  us  never  forget  that  in  doing  this  work  we  strike  hands 
with  the  discoverer  whose  work  you  are  so  soon  and  so  grandly  to 
celebrate  !  We  strike  hands  with  martyrs,  and  with  early  teachers 
and  apostles  before  them ;  we  strike  hands  with  the  missionaries 
who  brought  the  gospel  to  our  own  savage  ^ancestors,  and  out  of 
painted  pirates  made  them  into  subjects  of  God's  Christian  rule ; 
we  strike  hands  with  all  that  has  been  loveliest  and  noblest  in  all 
the  past,  and  we  reach  forward  to  ages  which  we  shall  not  see 
upon  the  earth. 

The  humblest  life  becomes  sublime  wnen  it  takes  hold  upon 
God's  plan,  and  helps  to  work  it  out.  The  noblest  powers  of 
earth  take  their  supreme  inspiration,  their  coronation  and  glory, 
from  contributing  to  that  divine  plan.  And  that  will  be  a  joy  to 
us  when  heaven  is  opened :  that  we  may  look  back  upon  the 
earth  and  say,  "  I  saw  that  purpose,  and  worked  to  accomplish  it. 
I  gave  money  and  time,  labor  and  life,  to  that  supreme  endeavor." 
That  will  be  a  joy  which  even  the  harps  of  saints  cannot  fully 
bear,  and  the  lips  of  the  redeemed  cannot  fully  utter.  The  mag- 
nificent privilege  of  life  is  to  take  part  in  this  work,  to  do  it  with 
our  might,  and  do  it  unto  the  end.     [Loud  applause.] 


VI. 

Cl^e  appeal  of  ^foreign  jHijSjstonjsJ  to 
OBujstnejsJjs  CommunitiejJ* 

ADDRESS  AT  THE   ANNUAL  MEETING  AT  WORCESTER,  1893. 


THE   APPEAL  OF    FOREIGN   MISSIONS    TO 
BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES. 


Brethren  of  the  American  Board,  Christian  Friends :  If  there 
had  not  been  very  exceptional  circumstances  connected  with  the 
acceptance  by  the  Vice-President  and  myself  of  the  offices  to 
which  you  have  done  us  the  honor  to  reelect  us,  I  should  not 
refer  to  that  election ;  but  under  the  circumstances,  it  seems 
proper  that  I  say  a  word  or  two  in  regard  to  it,  and  to  our 
relation  to  it.  Six  years  ago,  when  I  was  caught  in  the  deadly 
grip  between  your  judgment  and  will  and  my  own  strongly  ad- 
verse preference,  as  you  elected  me  to  the  Presidency  of  this 
institution,  I  said  that  I  could  accept  it  only  on  the  condition 
that  some  way  should  be  found  in  which  we  all  might  walk  and 
work  together  as  Christian  brethren,  trj-ing  to  advance  the  king- 
dom of  the  Lord  on  earth.  That  way  I  sought  to  outline  in  the 
letter  of  acceptance  which  I  wrote  a  short  time  afterward,  and 
which  the  Board  did  me  the  honor  to  adopt  as  a  practical  basis 
of  administration  two  years  later,  at  the  meeting  in  New  York.  In 
that  letter  of  acceptance  there  was  not  a  hair-breadth  of  com- 
promise on  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  Board.  A  certain 
hypothesis,  which  had  been  presented  as  a  tolerable  hypothesis, 
was  regarded  by  me,  as  it  was  by  many  others  and  as  it  still  is  by 
myself,  as  a  dangerous  dream  of  the  human  mind,  unauthorized 
by  the  Scripture,  almost  certainly  damaging  to  the  souls  of  men. 
But  I  made  the  distinction,  which  I  have  made  many  times 
in  the  examination  of  candidates  for  license,  or  for  ordination  or 
installation,  between  that  which  a  man  thinks  more  or  less  loosely, 
and  the  man  himself,  or  a  doctrine  positively  and  centrally  held 
by  him.     Coleridge  said,  you  remember,  in  words  which  I  might 


I04  ^^-^  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

not  adopt  in  their  full  reach,  but  which  have  in  them  a  great 
element  of  truth,  "  Tolerate  no  belief  which  you  deem  false  and 
of  injurious  tendency,  but  arraign  no  believer.  The  man  is  more 
and  other  than  his  belief ;  and  God  only  knows  how  large  or  how 
small  a  part  of  him  the  belief  in  question  may  be." 

As  I  said,  I  might  not  perhaps  adopt  that  in  its  full  significance 
and  reach,  but  I  do  apply  it  to  many  of  the  thoughts  which  now 
and  then  float  into  the  mind,  and  float  out  again,  of  those  who  are 
meditating  upon  the  mysterious  and  austere  problems  of  the 
future  life.  I  said,  in  the  letter  to  which  I  have  referred,  that  I 
thought  this  a  just  distinction;  and  that  we  were  to  estimate, 
carefully  and  critically,  the  spiritual  force  of  any  tendency  which 
might  appear  in  the  candidate  toward  a  doctrine  which  we 
could  not  endorse.  As  I  understand  it,  the  Board  itself  has 
adopted  and  applied  precisely  that  principle,  in  the  action  which 
it  took  this  morning.  It  recognizes  that  a  man  may  be  entangled 
in  statements  made  by  himself  which  he  is  not  ready  to 
repudiate,  feeling  perhaps  that  it  would  be  unjust  to  his  self- 
respect  to  do  so,  but  which  do  not  represent  a  part  of  his  working 
theology.  So  it  was  said,  truly,  emphatically,  that  the  recent 
action  does  not  change  in  any  degree  the  doctrinal  basis  of  the 
Board. 

It  believes,  or  hopes  certainly,  I  think  believes,  that  this  man, 
whose  work  has  been  seen  and  known  of  men  in  Japan,  who  is 
commended  to  the  Board  by  all  the  missionaries  working  in  that 
empire  connected  with  us,  will  work,  precisely  as  I  said  at  Chicago 
last  year,  as  if  he  knew  that  the  hypothesis  which  has  interested 
his  mind  was  not  a  reality  but  a  dream.  The  Board  has  exercised 
this  generous  confidence  in  him.  I  trust,  and  I  surely  hope,  that 
the  result  will  justify  this  expectation.  It  has  not  changed  in  any 
degree  the  doctrinal  basis  of  the  Board,  but  it  has  given  to  this 
brother,  laboring  afar  from  us,  and  commending  himself  thus  far 
by  his  work,  the  opportunity  to  labor  in  its  service  and  under  its 
commission,  while  he  continues  to  labor  in  faithfulness  and  with 
zeal.     This  is  what  the  Board  has  done  and  nothing  else. 

I  believe,  firmly,  in  the  correctness  and  the  wisdom  of  each  of 
the  minutes  adopted  by  the  Prudential  Committee,  in  April,  and 


TO  BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES.  I05 

in  June.  I  ought  to,  for  I  had  some  hand  in  shaping  each  of 
those  minutes.  I  believe  that  we  desired  —  I  know  we  did  —  to 
appoint  Mr.  Noyes,  as  we  stated  in  the  first  minute,  setting  forth 
the  grounds  upon  which  we  could  make  the  appointment.  I 
believe,  when  subsequent  declarations  came  from  him  to  us,  that 
it  was  not  within  the  province  of  the  committee  to  complete  the 
appointment,  but  that  it  must  be  referred  to  the  Board.  I 
reaffirm  both  the  positions  in  those  minutes ;  and  nothing  has 
been  done  which  is  inconsistent  with  them.  The  Board  has  only 
exercised  its  authority,  which  it  had  not  delegated  to  the  com- 
mittee, but  which  was  perfectly  within  its  own  power  all  the 
time. 

Now  a  personal  word,  if  you  will  allow  it.  I  came  to  this  city 
absolutely  determined  not  to  be  reelected  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  Board  —  simply  upon  personal  grounds,  and  without  the 
slightest  reference  to  any  action  that  might  be  taken,  or  might 
not  be  taken,  in  regard  to  this  or  to  any  other  controverted  sub- 
ject. Brethren,  I  have  passed  by  two  years  the  limit,  which, 
under  the  unwritten  law  of  this  institution,  applies  in  respect  to 
the  age  of  those  who  are  in  its  service  as  its  secretaries ;  and  I 
am  perfectly  conscious  that  the  elasticity  and  the  resilience  of 
spirit  which  I  had  even  ten  years  ago  is  not  as  complete  in  my 
experience  to-day  as  it  then  was.  You  will  remember  that  I  have 
the  care,  constantly,  of  a  large  and  important  church  upon  my 
hands,  without  assistance  in  the  church-work.  You  know,  many 
of  you,  how  tasking  to  the  sympathies  and  how  exacting  to  the 
intellectual  power,  in  a  preacher  and  pastor,  is  the  work  of  a 
church.  I  came  last  week  through  the  most  tragic  and  glorious 
scenes  that  we  ever  meet  on  this  side  of  the  gates  of  pearl,  —  the 
sickness,  terminating  in  the  death,  of  a  brilliant  and  beloved 
young  man,  married  two  years  ago  to  a  lady  of  my  congregation, 
beloved  by  me,  leaving  his  young  wife  and  his  infant  child,  and 
passing  on  in  the  victorious  triumph  of  faith,  yet  amid  the 
sadness  and  the  tears  of  those  around  him,  to  the  World  Unseen. 
Twice,  last  week,  I  stood  by  the  coffins  of  members  of  my  congre- 
gation. You  who  are  pastors  know  how  that  draws  upon  the  very 
life  of  the  spirit ;  and  I  came  here,  after  the  Sunday  services  which 


I06  THE  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

followed,  weary  and  sick.  I  have  sat  upon  this  platform  with  my 
head  filled  with  pain,  and  my  eyes  almost  blinded  by  the  pain 
behind  them,  while  the  debates  have  been  going  on.  Yet  this  is 
only  one  meeting  at  which  I  must  be  present.  Other  meetings 
come ;  deliberations  are  to  be  conducted ;  a  large  correspondence 
has  to  be  carried  on  ;  there  are  critical  exigencies  which  must  be 
met ;  there  are  criticisms  which  must  be  encountered,  and  some- 
times in  justice  to  the  cause  be  answered  ;  and  the  pressure  is 
greater  than  I  felt  that  1  could  again  take  up.  Therefore  I  deter- 
mined absolutely  to  resign,  saying  nothing  about  it  until  the  letter 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  committee,  but  not  withdrawing  it  on  any 
condition. 

My  dear  and  honored  brother,  the  Vice-President,  who  has 
sat  by  my  side  and  worked  with  me  in  this  cause  through  all 
these  years,  had  come  here,  without  my  knowing  it,  with  the 
same  purpose  in  his  own  mind.  Pressed  by  the  claims  of  a 
large  private  business,  and  by  the  claims  of  vast  public  trusts,  as 
a  trustee  of  great  libraries  and  of  many  estates,  he  felt  that  he 
could  not  go  on  longer  with  this  service ;  and  he  had  written  his 
letter  of  resignation  as  I  had  written  mine.  Both  of  these  letters 
went  into  the  hands  of  the  committee  yesterday  morning,  as  soon 
as  we  knew  of  whom  the  committee  was  to  be  composed.  Neither 
letter  had  the  least  reference  to  any  question  coming  before  the 
Board.  They  were  personal  letters,  written  under  the  exigencies 
of  personal  experience,  and  claiming  a  relief  which  we  felt  that  we 
had  deserved  and  earned.  At  three  o'clock  this  afternoon,  after 
resisting  every  effort  to  persuade  us  to  withdraw  those  letters,  we 
learned,  together,  that  there  were  other  resignations  which  were 
to  come,  presumably  on  account  of  the  action  which  had  been 
taken  by  the  Board  this  morning,  in  which  action  we  individually 
and  entirely  concurred.  We,  therefore,  instantly  felt  that  our 
resignations,  going  out  with  the  others,  would  imply,  in  spite  of 
anything  that  could  be  said  to  the  contrary,  to  the  public  mind,  a 
dissatisfaction  on  our  part  with  the  action  of  the  Board  this  morn- 
ing, which  dissatisfaction  did  not  exist. 

Therefore,  not  because  we  were  unwilling  to  be  misrepresented 
—  we  have  borne  that  trial  a  good  many  times,  and  never  fretted 


rO  BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES.  lO/ 

or  flinched  —  but  because  we  thought  damage  might  be  done  to 
the  work  of  the  Board  to  which  we  have  given  our  years  of  serv- 
ice, and  in  whose  ever-growing  and  more  glorious  prosperity  our 
hearts  are  bound  up,  we  at  the  last  moment  withdrew  our  resigna- 
tions, and  now  accept  our  election  to  the  offices  of  President  and 
Vice-President.     [Loud  and  prolonged  applause.] 

Now,  brethren,  let  us  have  a  time  of  peace  !  [Loud  applause.] 
You  have  appointed  new  members,  largely,  upon  the  Prudential 
Committee ;  you  have  appointed  a  new  secretary ;  now  let 
us  all  work  together  for  the  glory  of  the  Master  and  his  king- 
dom during  all  this  year,  as  far  as  possible  without  complaint 
and  without  criticism.  [Loud  applause.]  I  remember  an  elo- 
quent Methodist  divine,  an  old  man  who  had  been  brought  up 
and  trained  in  an  agricultural  community,  and  who  was  accus- 
tomed, I  presume,  to  use  figures  that  suited  that  community, 
in  whose  church  there  was  at  one  time  a  violent  quarrel.  In 
one  of  his  prayers  he  was  reported  to  have  said :  "  O  Lord, 
thou  knowest  that  there  will  be  puUings  and  haulings  in  our 
spiritual  team,  until  we  are  all  unharnessed  and  put  up  to  fod- 
der in  the  stalls  of  eternal  salvation."  [Laughter.]  But,  he 
added,  "O  Lord,  do  grant  us  now  a  Uttle  peace."  [Laughter.] 
I  say  precisely  that.  We  have  not  changed  the  doctrinal  basis  of 
the  Board  a  bit.  We  have  only  called  new  men,  to  do  the  work 
which  others  felt  reluctant  to  pursue ;  and  now,  for  the  sake  of 
the  cause,  for  the  sake  of  the  Master,  for  the  sake  of  the  world, 
for  the  sake  of  our  own  souls,  let  us  work  together  in  this  cause 
with  a  joyful  and  triumphant  energy  that  shall  bring  us  at  the  end 
of  the  year  to  a  treasury  so  filled,  to  such  a  harmony  and  unity  of 
counsel,  and  to  such  a  work  at  home  and  abroad,  as  the  Board 
has  never  known.     [Loud  applause.] 

Well,  you  expect  me  to  say  some  words  at  any  rate  on  the 
general  subject  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  I  am  always  glad  to 
do  that.  One  of  the  Chicago  newspapers  last  year,  I  remem- 
ber, was  responsible  for  the  story  that  when  a  man  and  his 
wife  from  one  of  the  outlying  wards  of  Chicago  —  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  I  believe,  from  the  center  of  the  city 
[laughter]  — were  passing  a  placard   on   the   street,   they  saw 


I08  THE  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

in  large  letters,  two  feet  tall,  "A.  B.  C.  F.  M."  "Why,  John," 
said  his  wife,  "what  do  you  suppose  those  letters  stand  for?" 
"  Well,  Jennie,  I  don't  really  know,  unless  perhaps  it 's  because 
they  can't  sit  down."  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Well,  I  always 
feel  a  difficulty  in  sitting  down,  and  a  great  facility  in  standing 
up,  when  the  subject  of  foreign  missions  comes  before  my 
thought,  and  is  to  be  presented  before  an  audience.  We  can 
none  of  us  have  heard,  I  am  sure,  that  magnificent  discourse  on 
last  Tuesday  evening,  without  feeling  the  grandeur  and  sublimity 
of  the  aim  which  is  contemplated  in  the  work  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sions, —  the  aim  for  individual  souls,  and  the  aim  for  the  world  at 
large.  It  concerns  the  grandest  things  in  God,  —  not  his  power 
and  his  authority  only,  but  the  character  in  him,  of  wisdom  and 
love,  which  gives  sublimity  to  his  omnipotence,  and  without 
which  that  omnipotence  would  be  a  continual  and  terrific  menace 
to  the  universe.  It  concerns  God  in  his  greatest  work  —  greater 
than  that  of  creation,  greater  than  that  of  swinging  yonder  con- 
stellations in  their  mighty  rhythm  through  the  silent  skies,  —  the 
work  of  Redemption  by  which  the  human  soul,  defiled  and  igno- 
rant, is  to  be  lifted  into  fellowship  with  God,  through  his  Son  and 
by  his  Spirit,  and  to  be  made  the  partaker  here,  and  the  full  heir 
hereafter,  of  the  glory  and  honor  and  immortality  which  are 
beyond  the  grave.  You  remember  that  that  magnificent  man, 
Phillips  Brooks,  as  I  always  love  to  call  him.  Bishop  Brooks  of 
this  diocese  of  Massachusetts,  said  once,  when  he  was  asked  in 
London,  "  What  sermon  are  you  to  preach  before  the  Queen?" 
"What  sermon?  There  is  only  one  sermon  !  "  Ah,  his  meaning 
was,  I  am  sure,  that  God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto 
himself,  is  to  be  the  substance  and  scope  of  every  sermon  ever 
preached  from  a  Christian  pulpit;  and  he,  when  his  work  was 
done,  went  up  to  see  the  great  results  of  that  resplendent  work, 
in  the  circles  of  the  immortals,  before  God's  throne.  That  is 
the  aim  of  foreign  missions,  —  to  bring  this  poor,  timid,  sin- 
ful human  spirit  into  alliance  and  fellowship  with  the  Divine 
mind  on  high  and  with  the  Divine  heart,  and  to  cover  the 
earth,  bloody  as  it  is,  defiled  as  it  is,  ragged  and  torn  as  it 
is  by  strifes  of  war,  with  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  of 


TO  BUSINESS  COMMUNITIES.  IO9 

peace,  and  of  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  a  work  which  not 
merely  exalts  the  mind,  it  positively  dilates  it,  when  it  enters  into 
our  clear  and  inspiring  thought.  It  is  a  work  the  contemplation 
of  which  opens  all  history  to  us,  opens  all  human  life  here  and 
beyond  to  our  thought  —  a  work  that  lifts  us  into  the  closest 
sympathy  with  Christ  on  his  cross,  in  his  ascension,  and  on  his 
throne  ;  a  work  which  brings  the  sublimities  and  mysteries  of  the 
eternal  counsel  of  God  to  enwrap  and  enkindle  our  contemplating 
minds. 

You  have  been,  many  of  you,  up  the  long  stairways  leading  to 
the  dome  of  St.  Peter's ;  and  you  remember  how  you  cHmbed 
along  those  darkened  passages  until,  at  last,  you  suddenly  stepped 
upon  the  floor  of  the  lantern,  when  out  of  the  darkness  you  passed 
into  the  sunshine,  and  all  the  scene  opened  before  you  at  a 
glance,  —  the  great  Campagna,  the  Alban  and  the  Sabine  Hills, 
with  off  in  the  west  the  flash  of  the  Mediterranean,  under  perhaps 
the  sunset  splendors.  So  it  is  when  we  rise  to  the  summit  of  this 
great  theme.  All  history  opens,  and  all  the  gospel  opens,  and  all 
the  eternity  to  come  opens  before  us.  That  is  our  work,  and  it  is 
the  educational  work  of  the  church. 

I  have  often  thought  that  there  is  the  secret  of  the  reason  why 
God  leaves  it  to  us  to  do,  and  does  not  send  his  ministering 
angels,  and  does  not  write  his  law  and  promise  in  letters  of 
lightnings,  lucid  and  not  frightful,  on  the  glowing  heavens.  He 
leaves  it  to  us  to  carry  his  messages,  that  we  may  be  enriched 
and  expanded,  newly  empowered,  in  mind  and  spirit,  by  doing  the 
Divine  Work  in  the  world. 

It  is  the  great  educational  force  of  civilization  itself.  It  is  that 
which  trains  civilization  for  its  noblest  office  among  men.  So  to 
this  let  us  be  dedicated  here,  afresh  —  dedicated  for  all  these 
years  to  come,  dedicated  as  long  as  we  live  on  earth,  and  dedi- 
cated more  than  ever  when  we  pass  through  the  gates  of  light, 
and  are  with  the  saints  who  have  gone  before. 

But  I  remember  that  I  am  speaking  in  the  midst  of  a  com- 
munity which  is  occupied  largely  and  properly  in  practical  affairs, 
and  where  men  and  women  sometimes  say,  and  perhaps  oftener 
think,  "  Well,  this  is  all  very  sublime,  beautiful  to  think  of ;  and 


I  lO  THE  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

for  the  church,  and  for  spiritual  circles,  and  for  ourselves  in  high 
spiritual  moods,  it  is  a  delightful  and  elevating  subject  of  con- 
templation. But  foreign  missions  have  no  direct  practical  rela- 
tions to  us,  to  our  daily  life,  to  our  business  affairs,  to  our  enter- 
prise and  commerce,  and  prosperity  in  the  world.  And  even  if 
they  had,  the  enterprise  is  too  vast  to  be  carried  through  by  the 
instruments  which  Christian  men  have  in  their  hands.  It  is  like 
trying  to  tunnel  a  mountain  with  a  glass  auger ;  it  is  like  trying  to 
conquer  the  ocean  by  sending  out  birch  canoes  upon  it,  to 
undertake  to  conquer  the  world  to  Christ  by  sending  out  a  mis- 
sionary here,  and  a  missionary  there,  and  putting  the  Scriptures 
into  this  barbarous  dialect  and  the  other." 

Now  let  us  look  at  this  a  minute.  I  am  speaking  not  merely  to 
those  who  are  accustomed  to  high  contemplations,  and  who  are 
satisfied  with  their  spiritual  vision  of  that  which  God  purposes 
for  us,  and  calls  upon  us  to  do,  but  I  am  speaking  to  those  en- 
gaged in  practical  affairs,  who  want  to  know  how  foreign  missions 
are  related  to  them.  Then,  my  friends,  let  us  at  least  distinctly 
recognize  the  fact  that  everything  we  have  in  the  world  which  is 
precious  to  us,  as  having  in  it  a  Christian  element,  has  come  from 
the  work  of  foreign  missions  !  You  know  how  that  work  began  in 
the  early  time,  and  was  carried  on  to  the  Roman,  to  the  Greek, 
to  the  Egyptian,  to  the  Babylonian,  to  Spain  and  Gaul  and  Britain, 
to  the  Slavs  and  the  Avars  and  the  Finns,  and  all  the  others.  It 
was  by  that  work  of  foreign  missions  that  our  pagan  ancestors 
were  evangelized,  and  turned  from  rapacious  pirates  into  peaceful 
subjects  of  organized  commonwealths.  It  was  from  that  work 
that  we  have  received  whatsoever  we  have  that  makes  life  beau- 
tiful to  us.  Every  church,  every  college,  every  hospital,  every 
Christian  home,  rests  upon  that  work  of  foreign  missions. 

Every  institution  in  this  city,  famous  as  it  is  for  its  institu- 
tions, and  for  its  manifold  outreaching  enterprise,  rests  upon 
the  basis  of  foreign  missions ;  from  the  humblest  kindergar- 
ten, up  to  the  great  university  munificently  endowed  by  one 
of  your  citizens.  Yonder  hospital  for  the  insane,  famous  in  all 
the  country,  rests  upon  foreign  missions.  All  Christian  litera- 
ture  and   all  Christian  art,  all  the   serenities   and   the   prosper- 


TO  BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES.  I  I  I 

ities  and  the  festivities  of  domestic  life,  rest  upon  foreign  mis- 
sions. Every  library  comes  from  foreign  missions,  and  every 
effort  that  is  humane  in  its  character  or  Christian  in  its  scope 
comes  from  the  same.  Every  bank,  every  counting-room,  as  well 
as  the  hospital  and  the  home,  has  an  influence  upon  it  from  for- 
eign missions.  All  mechanical  industry  took  its  first  and  sublim- 
est  consecration  in  the  world  when  the  Divine  hands,  that  sub- 
mitted afterward  to  be  nailed  to  the  cross,  and  that  now  hold  the 
keys  of  empire  on  the  earth,  took  up  and  handled  and  skillfully 
used  the  humble  instruments  in  the  carpenter's  shop  at  Nazareth. 
[Applause.]  That  gave  consecration  to  industry ;  that  made  it 
glorious  and  beautiful  in  the  sight  of  Christian  men,  as  in  the 
sight  of  angels,  and  of  God  himself. 

Now  let  us  recognize  the  fact  that  we  did  not  make  ourselves 
enlightened,  industrious  and  successful,  any  more  than  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  who  were  nobler  than  we  are  in  some  respects  of 
natural  constitution,  made  themselves  free  and  Christian. 

We  inherit  a  Christian  Civilization  :  that  is  the  whole  story 
in  a  single  word ;  and  that  Christian  civilization  came  to  us 
through  the  agency  of  foreign  missions.  So,  if  only  in  gratitude 
for  what  we  have  received,  let  us  carry  the  same  forces  and 
effects  of  foreign  missions  to  lands  and  peoples  where  now 
they  are  not  known ;  and  let  us  feel  that  it  is  a  debt  which 
we  owe  to  the  past,  and  to  the  present,  and  to  the  future,  to  make 
this  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is  so  beautiful  to  us  and  so  inspir- 
ing and  glorious,  at  home  in  all  the  world. 

But  then,  men  are  apt  to  say,  if  they  are  of  a  practical  turn  of 
mind,  "  Yes,  all  right ;  that  is  true :  but  you  can't  do  anything 
effective  in  this  direction.  You  might  as  well  undertake  to  roof 
the  earth  with  agate  and  opal,  as  to  make  this  kingdom  of  Christ 
of  which  you  speak  universal."  Well,  let  us  clearly  observe  some 
things  about  this.  We  have  the  same  gospel  which  has  been  the 
instrument  in  this  mighty  work  from  the  beginning  until  now, 
with  all  its  stupendous  truths,  its  transcendent  facts,  its  glorious 
discoveries  of  the  future,  and  its  sublime  opening  to  us  of  the 
way  of  eternal  life.  We  have  it  with  the  Cross,  and  with  the  great 
White  Throne.     We  have  it  in  every  element  of  power  that  belongs 


112  THE  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

to  it  or  has  ever  belonged  to  it,  since  it  was  proclaimed  by  the 
lips  of  the  Divine  Master.  And  it  is  the  power  of  God  and  the 
wisdom  of  God  unto  the  salvation  of  men  —  this  gospel  of  Christ. 
It  has  illustrated  its  power  how  many  millions  of  times  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  !  how  many  hundreds  of  times  within  our  own 
observation  !  when  the  harlot  has  been  turned  into  the  sweet, 
heroic  saint ;  when  the  lips  that  had  had  oaths  upon  them,  only, 
have  been  tuned  to  the  praises  of  God ;  when  the  rude  ruffian  of 
the  streets  has  been  turned  into  the  humble,  faithful  and  victori- 
ous minister  of  the  gospel.  It  is  a  power,  observe,  that  never 
wastes  and  never  breaks  —  this  power  of  the  gospel.  You  can- 
not stretch  a  wire  so  taut  that  it  will  not  sag  between  the  poles  at 
the  center ;  but  here  is  a  spring  of  air,  if  you  choose  to  call  it 
such,  that  keeps  its  elasticity  ten  years,  a  thousand  years,  and  has 
never  yielded  in  the  least.  It  is  like  a  fountain  of  water  which 
never  fails  ;  it  is  like  the  speed  of  lightning,  on  which  all  men  can 
calculate  as  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  This  gos- 
pel of  Christ  is  one  of  the  great  unwasting  powers  in  the  world  ; 
as  fresh  and  complete  in  your  hand  and  in  mine  to-day,  as 
fresh  and  complete  in  the  hand  of  any  man  ministering  to  any 
people  on  the  earth,  as  it  was  when  it  conquered  Paul,  when 
it  lifted  Stephen  into  the  rapture  of  the  first  martyrdom,  when  it 
manifested  to  John  the  glory  of  the  Apocalypse.  It  is  the  same 
gospel,  —  let  us  never  forget  that ! 

And  there  are  better  and  more  effective  instruments  for  declar- 
ing it  in  the  world  than  ever  there  were  before.  All  the  progress 
of  modern  mechanism  has  this  for  its  moral  meaning.  It  came, 
observe,  with  Christian  missions.  The  telegraph,  which  enables 
us  to  speak  around  the  world  ;  the  telephone,  which  enables  us  to 
talk  with  distant  friends  as  if  face  to  face ;  the  mighty  steamship, 
trampling  the  ocean  into  a  floor,  and  the  railway  train  rushing 
over  the  continent,  all  came  with  missions  or  subsequently  to 
missions,  and  they  have  this  for  their  moral  significance  and  pur- 
pose —  to  further  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  They  are  the  whirling 
wheels  under  Messiah's  throne,  as  he  rides  forward  to  his  utter- 
most perfect  supremacy  in  the  world.  Our  ships  took  four 
months  in  going  to  India  when  the  first  missionaries  sailed ;  now 


TO  BUSINESS  COMMUNITIES.  113 

you  can  speak  to  Bombay  in  a  day  and  get  an  answer.  Every- 
where there  is  the  same  progress.  The  Cunard  steamers,  I 
noticed  not  long  ago,  which  have  been  running  for  perhaps  a  little 
more  than  fifty  years,  if  I  remember  rightly,  are  said  to  have  al- 
ready traversed  a  distance  in  their  successive  voyages  across  the 
ocean  equal  to  one  quarter  of  the  distance  of  the  sun  from  the 
earth.  That  illustrates  the  way  in  which  the  whole  earth  is  now 
being  made  a  neighborhood.  These  presses  giving  the  Scriptures 
in  three  hundred  languages  to  mankind  are  as  divinely  arranged 
heliographs,  flashing  the  tidings  of  salvation  in  Christ  and  his 
cross  around  the  world,  to  every  household  and  to  every  heart. 
Such  instruments  as  the  world  never  knew  before  are  in  our  hand. 
The  child  touches  the  thimble  apparent  on  the  surface,  which  sets 
in  motion  vast  machineries  far  away. 

We  have  greater  instruments  for  the  same  gospel,  and  we 
have  no  more  obstacles  than  there  were  at  the  beginning. 
There  are  always  obstacles,  growing  out  of  the  evil  nature 
of  man,  his  inherited  and  educated  tendencies  to  selfishness 
and  wrong;  but  they  are  no  greater  now  than  at  the  begin- 
ning. The  crafty  reasoner  is  no  more  subtle  and  dangerous 
in  India  or  Japan  or  China  than  he  was  in  Rome  or  Greece; 
and  modern  infidelity  has  to  import  and  transport  its  argu- 
ments from  those  early  critics,  and  those  stubborn  cavillers 
against  the  gospel.  Barbarism  has  no  cruelty  more  savage  and 
relentless  than  that  shown  in  the  early  centuries  toward  the 
Christians,  and  shown  most  fiercely  by  the  most  civilized  people 
of  those  times.  The  prepossessions  of  heredity  are  no  greater 
now  than  they  were.  The  passions  of  men  are  no  more  domi- 
nating than  they  were.  The  power  of  governments  against  the 
gospel,  even  in  Turkey,  is  not  more  strenuous  and  relentless 
in  its  exercise  than  it  was  at  the  outset.  Social  predisposi- 
tions against  it,  and  other  forces  working  against  it,  are  no 
more  eager,  intense  and  general,  at  this  hour  than  they  were 
before. 

But  the  gospel  has  conquered  these  in  the  past,  and  it  is  per- 
fectly able,  with  the  grace  of  God  helping,  to  conquer  in  the 
future.     Remember,  too,  that  we  have  now  the  great  secular  argu- 


114  ^^^  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

ment  for  the  gospel,  which  the  world  has  to  see  and  hear,  and 
which  it  has  been  reserved  for  our  time  fully  to  develop.  Christen- 
dom is  that  great  secular  argument ;  built  upon  the  ruins  of  the  fore- 
going civilizations  ;  built  out  of  materials  that  seemed  too  mean  and 
vile  for  any  such  use,  built  by  the  gospel,  and  now  attracting  the 
admiration  of  the  world.  In  the  great  Parliament  of  Religions 
last  summer,  many  acute  and  eloquent  things  were  said ;  some 
noble  ethical  maxims  were  uttered,  perhaps  some  spiritual  truths, 
by  those  representing  religions  outside  of  Christianity.  But  in 
all  that  Parliament,  where  men  came  from  India  and  China,  and 
the  isles  of  the  sea,  in  their  superb  raiment,  with  their  persuasive 
and  commanding  accents,  there  was  no  proof  of  their  religion 
presented  like  that  which  every  Christian  can  point  to,  in  his  own 
country  and  in  Christendom  at  large,  which  the  gospel  has  shaped 
—  which  the  gospel  under  God  has  created. 


NOW   CHRISTENDOM   IS   A   PROPHETIC   FACT. 

Christendom,  when  it  has  been  purified  and  has  become  cos- 
mical  and  ecumenical,  is  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world ; 
and  wheresoever  any  people  look  to  us,  or  to  other  Christian 
nations,  for  the  liberties  and  the  homes  which  we  enjoy,  where 
they  see  the  Christian  mother  bending  with  the  beauty  of  love 
above  the  cradle,  where  they  see  the  Christian  bridegroom  in  a 
holier  affection  than  has  been  known  outside  of  Christendom 
clasping  his  bride,  when  they  see  and  hear  the  music  and  the 
mystery  of  the  Christian  hymn  or  the  Christian  poem,  and  desire 
the  same,  —  they  must  take  Christianity  in  order  to  gain  these. 
It  is  only  mental  or  moral  idiocy  that  can  shut  its  eyes  on  this 
sublime  demonstration  of  the  power  of  the  gospel. 

Then  observe  that  we  have  had  successes  such  as  have  not 
been  paralleled  in  any  other  century  of  history.  I  say  this  in 
full  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Roman  Empire  was  conquered, 
nominally  at  least,  by  Christianity  in  three  centuries.  But  re- 
member that  this  work  of  foreign  missions  began  with  William 
Carey,  in  the  circles  with  which  we  are  connected,  just  about  one 


TO  BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES.  I15 

hundred  years  ago.  Then  there  was  not  a  Protestant  Christian,  so 
far  as  I  know,  in  any  heathen  community,  who  had  been  reached 
by  the  gospel  from  these  States  or  from  England.  Now,  thou- 
sands of  churches,  millions  of  communicants,  hundreds  of  hos- 
pitals, and  of  higher  seminaries  for  instruction,  presses  putting 
the  Scripture  into  all  written  languages,  and  reducing  barbaric 
tongues  to  forms  of  alphabetical  language  that  they  may  put  the 
Scriptures  into  them,  —  all  these  successes  have  been  achieved 
within  this  hundred  years.  And  how  many  millions,  uncounted 
by  us,  are  rejoicing  already  in  the  blessing  and  the  joy  of  Paradise, 
because  this  work  of  foreign  missions  has  reached  them  and 
lifted  them  into  the  heavens  ! 

Observe,  too,  that  all  this  is  preliminary.  There  are  always 
preparatory  processes  before  the  climactic  conclusion  is  reached. 
You  see  the  turbid  mixture  of  the  chemist,  and  there  is  no  crystal 
apparent  there ;  but  the  introduction  of  another  element,  not 
very  visible,  certainly  not  great  in  appearance,  turns  the  mixture 
into  a  crystal  on  the  instant.  So  it  is  that  the  Lord  comes  sud- 
denly in  his  temple  ;  as  he  did  in  the  conversion  of  the  Roman 
Empire ;  as  he  did  in  the  great  Reformation ;  as  he  did  in  our 
great  Civil  War,  wiping  out  that  colossal  iniquity  which  we  had 
looked  to  see  gradually  terminated  in  the  course  of  centu- 
ries, in  the  fou,r  fierce  years  of  battle  and  of  victory.  It  is 
God's  method,  gradual  progression,  toward  sudden  consumma- 
tion. 

These  are  the  preliminary  successes,  and  the  great  success  is 
to  come  by  and  by,  as  I  believe  to  come  soon,  when  a  nation 
shall  be  born  in  a  day,  and  when  the  world,  to  the  utmost  reach 
of  its  circumference,  shall  have  heard  and  received  the  message 
of  salvation. 

Then  remember  that  we  have  a  power  to  depend  upon  which 
never  fails,  even  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  given  to 
us,  given  to  our  missionaries ;  the  same  power  which  spoke  in 
inspiration,  and  which  now  interprets  the  truth,  thus  given,  to 
those  who  have  not  heard  it;  and  till  the  power  of  gravitation 
breaks,  till  the  arm  of  the  Almighty  gives  way,  till  the  will  of  God 
is  broken,  that  power  will  remain   in   the   church,  and   for   the 


I  l6  THE  APPEAL    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

church,  and  there  is  nothing  in  human  resistance  which  it  can- 
not and  shall  not  overcome. 

So  remember  that  we  have  the  same  gospel,  and  we  have 
greater  instruments,  more  multiplied  and  fit ;  we  have  no  greater 
obstacles  to  encounter ;  we  have  the  grand  secular  argument  of 
Christendom  to  present ;  we  have  successes  realized,  unparalleled 
in  history,  and  we  have  the  power  of  God  to  complete  them  all  — 
in  his  Spirit.  Whatsoever  then  we  despond  concerning,  let  us 
never  despond  concerning  this  work  of  foreign  missions.  It  is 
the  one  work  that  is  sure  to  succeed.  Here  is  the  standard  that 
never  goes  down  in  any  struggle.  Here  is  the  aim  to  which  we 
may  give  our  utmost  enthusiasm,  with  the  absolute  assurance  of 
reaching  it.  We  do  not  know  what  the  government  of  this  coun- 
try may  be,  a  hundred  years  from  now ;  we  do  not  know  what  the 
constitution  of  kingdoms  in  Europe  may  be,  a  hundred  years  from 
now ;  we  cannot  prophesy  concerning  the  future  in  anything  else 
which  concerns  human  progress.  But  here  is  one  great  luminous 
prophecy  given  by  God  himself,  who  knoweth  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  which  will  never  be  disappointed,  and  never  will  fail 
of  its  accomplishment  —  the  prophecy  that  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  God  and  of  his  Son. 
[Applause.] 

So  let  us  work.  The  only  thing  we  need  is  the  power  of  en- 
thusiasm, intense,  inspiring,  unwearying,  unrelaxing  in  our  own 
hearts.  Then,  when  we  touch  the  tender  and  bleeding  and  kingly 
hands  of  our  Divine  Master,  when  we  stand  under  the  shadow  of 
the  cross,  when  we  stand  beside  the  risen  Lord  breaking  the  bars 
of  the  sepulcher,  when  we  see  him  ascending  in  his  glory,  when 
we  see  him  on  high  with  saints  and  angels  worshiping  before 
him,  this  enthusiasm  will  kindle  in  us.  We  shall  be  pressed  in 
the  spirit ;  we  shall  be  driven  on,  as  by  irresistible  energy,  to  do 
more  and  greater  things  in  this  sublimest  enterprise  which  the 
world  has  seen. 

And  then,  oh  then,  my  dearly  beloved,  when  the  triumph 
comes,  when  the  world  ransomed  by  Christ  is  submissive  to  him, 
and  when  you  and  I  see  it  from  the  heights  which  we  are  to 
ascend,  through  God's  grace  and  in  the  uplift  of  his  Spirit,  what 


TO  BUSINESS   COMMUNITIES.  \  \  7 

voices  of  triumph  will  be  on  our  lips,  and  what  thrills  of  triumph 
in  our  redeemed  hearts  !  —  words  of  triumph,  and  thrills  of  tri- 
umph, that  shall  be  with  us  forever,  through  the  glory  of  the 
unhorizoned  immortality.     [Prolonged  applause.] 


VII. 

Cl^e  aim  of  foreign  a^ijgjsionjs* 

ADDRESS  AT  THE   ANNUAL   MEETING  AT  BROOKLYN,  1895- 


THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


Members  of  the  American  Board,  Christian  Friends,  and 
Friends  of  Missions :  It  would  be  my  choice  to  sit  in  silence,  and 
listen  to  the  reports  which  are  brought  to  us  from  the  missionary 
field  by  those  whom  we  have  sent  out  and  followed  with  our 
prayers,  and  who  come  back  to  tell  us  of  what  they  have  done 
and  seen  in  the  Lord's  service,  —  as  our  brother  who  has  just 
spoken,  who  was  licensed  to  preach  the  gospel  in  the  lecture 
room  of  my  own  church,  has  come  back  to  tell  us  of  what  he  and 
his  associates  have  seen  in  Jaffna.  But  the  custom  of  the  Board, 
and  a  sort  of  unwritten  rule  guiding  its  proceedings,  put  an  almost 
peremptory  obligation  on  the  President  to  make  an  address  on 
this  occasion,  to  the  great  assembly  which  is  wont  to  be  gathered. 
I  speak,  therefore,  on  behalf  of  the  Board,  and  not  because  of 
any  personal  desire  to  do  so. 

There  are  not  a  great  many  subjects  which,  after  the  continued 
discussions  of  eighty-five  years,  by  multitudes  of  minds,  do  not 
become  worn  and  hackneyed,  so  as  to  fail  to  excite  interest  and 
stir  animated  feeling  when  they  are  again  before  us.  We  know 
not  very  much,  and  care  perhaps  less,  concerning  the  questions 
which  were  agitating  the  country  in  the  political  administrations 
of  Jefferson  and  Madison,  or  the  financial  questions  which  were 
then  prominent  before  men's  minds,  or  even  the  literary  questions 
which  then  occupied  those  who  were  students  of  literature.  And 
so  it  is  that  multitudes  of  themes  pass  away  from  us,  as  the  mists 
pass  away  from  the  mountain  summit  in  the  morning  light,  or  as 


I  2  2  THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

we  on  the  railroad  trains  sweep  through  villages,  and  sometimes 
through  cities,  and  forget  even  that  we  have  seen  them.  But  the 
theme  of  foreign  missions  is  one  that  has  perennial  freshness.  It 
is  so  vital  and  vast  a  theme  that  it  never  loses  its  hold  on  the 
intelligent  mind  and  the  devout  and  reverent  heart ;  and  it  comes 
to  us  to-night  as  fresh  as  the  dayspring,  as  fresh  as  the  early 
spring  blooms.  I  always  feel  this  in  rising  to  speak  upon  foreign 
missions,  and  perhaps  more  than  usually  I  feel  it  this  evening ;  for 
in  the  eight  years  during  which,  by  your  command,  it  has  been 
my  duty  and  privilege  to  preside  in  the  meetings  of  this  Board, 
we  have  had  many,  and  sometimes  sharp  and  vehement  discus- 
sions, many  divergencies  of  feeling  and  conviction ;  in  regard 
chiefly,  at  least,  to  minor  questions  —  questions  of  methods  of 
procedure,  questions  of  preference  for  one  candidate  or  another, 
or  one  class  of  candidates  or  another,  but  questions  still  which 
have  occupied  at  the  time  all  our  minds  to  a  large  extent.  Now 
that  these  have  passed  away  into  the  distance,  the  great  theme 
rises  again  before  us  in  its  original  beauty,  in  its  commanding 
dignity — the  theme  which  has  been  really  behind  all  these  dis- 
cussions from  the  outset. 

It  is  somewhat  as  after  a  windy  and  gusty  day,  when  the  storm 
has  been  hurtling  through  the  air,  and  the  skies  have  been 
obscured,  the  clouds  pass  by,  and  the  great  all-encircling  heavens 
are  over  us  and  around  us  in  their  undimmed  beauty  and 
majesty.  So  it  is  with  this  theme  to-night.  I  do  not  suppose  we 
are  all  agreed  now,  perhaps,  on  points  of  practice ;  perhaps  not 
all  on  questions  of  biblical  interpretation  or  of  theological  phi- 
losophy ;  but  there  are  great  things  connected  with  this  missionary 
work  concerning  which  we  are  agreed.  They  are  the  great 
things  :  and  they  are  the  things  which  ought,  in  my  judgment,  to 
command  the  very  serious  attention,  if  not  the  immediate  assent, 
of  every  thoughtful  man  and  woman,  of  everyone  who  is  philan- 
thropic in  spirit,  and  Avho  desires  to  make  life  sweeter  and  nobler 
for  others.  I  marvel  that  men  of  the  world,  in  whom  is  the 
temper  of  philanthropy,  do  not  see  that  this  is  the  greatest  cause 
for  them  to  engage  in,  with  thought  and  heart,  and  with  free 
generosity. 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  23 

One  of  these  great  things  is  that  which  was  presented  to  us  so 
clearly,  and  with  such  eloquence  of  utterance,  in  the  sermon 
preached  the  other  evening  —  that  the  manifestation  of  God  in 
Christ  is  essential  to  meet  the  deepest  need  of  the  human  soul, 
to  meet  the  needs  of  men  individually  and  universally.  Some- 
times we  forget  this.  We  feel  as  if  a  man,  certainly  a  man  of 
higher  powers,  a  woman  of  liner  tastes  and  more  delicate  sensi- 
bilities, could  go  through  the  world  without  this,  and  still  retain 
all  that  is  noble  and  beautiful  in  spirit.  But  this  manifestation  of 
God  in  his  Son  is  essential  to  the  highest  welfare  of  every  human 
soul,  in  Christian  lands  or  in  heathen  lands.  For  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  mind,  if  for  nothing  else,  concerning  the  grandest 
facts  of  the  universe,  this  is  necessary  :  to  show  us  the  being  and 
government  of  God,  with  the  supreme,  loving  self-sacrifice  which  is 
eternal  in  his  heart ;  to  open  to  us  the  vital  and  measureless  universe 
with  which  we  are  connected  by  the  essential  constitution  of  our 
being ;  to  show  us  the  glory  of  the  immortality,  manifest  in  Christ 
and  emphasized  by  his  cross ;  to  show  us  man,  in  his  nature  and 
its  possibilities,  in  his  character  and  its  perils  ;  to  show  us  the  way 
and  the  promise  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  giving  new  exhilaration 
to  the  soul,  a  new  sense  of  freedom,  a  new  and  courageous  ex- 
pectation for  the  great  Hereafter  ;  to  work  a  true  regeneration  in 
the  temper  of  the  human  heart,  by  the  grace  of  God  accompanying 
that  manifestation  of  himself  in  his  Son,  so  that  the  soul  shall  enter 
into  fellowship  with  the  Divine  soul,  and  the  spirit  in  man  be  in 
sympathy  with  the  pure  and  mighty  spheres  of  spiritual  life  to 
which  we  are  organically  related. 

For  all  this  we  need,  individually,  the  manifestation  of  God  in 
his  Son.  Nature  cannot  give  us  these  illustrious  revelations,  and 
'  these  inspiring  impulses.  Nature,  with  fruits  and  flowers  and 
stately  mountains,  tumbling  oceans  and  shining  skies,  all  the 
great  and  lovely  phenomena  of  the  creation,  has  on  it  no  celestial 
gleam  from  within  the  gates  of  pearl.  If,  then,  it  be  a  great  thing 
to  take  a  human  soul  and  lift  it  into  Divine  fellowship  and  im- 
mortal felicity,  this  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ  becomes  sublime, 
as  the  instrument  by  which  to  do  a  work  so  august ;  the  work  which 
is  our  work,  our  missionary  work,  our  work  as  persons  in  the  social 


124  THE  AIM    OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

circles  which  we  affect,  our  work  as  related  to  this  Board  in  send- 
ing this  revelation  of  God  to  those  sitting  in  darkness,  whom  we 
have  never  seen.  Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  this  heavenly 
theophany  —  no  ethics,  no  philosophies,  no  scientific  instruction. 
Then,  certainly,  the  Golden  Rule  applies  to  us.  If  ye  have  freely 
received,  freely  give  !  This  revelation  is  needed  by  the  highest 
and  noblest  spirits  as  well  as  by  the  humblest,  by  those  of  grandest 
power  as  well  as  by  those  of  lesser  capacity.  Indeed,  if  we  may 
make  any  comparison,  they  need  it  most  who  are  of  highest 
power,  for  the  noblest  attainment  in  character,  for  the  largest 
usefulness  in  the  world.  If  we  therefore  have  found  education, 
exhilaration,  purification  of  the  spirit,  a  nobler  aim  in  life,  a  more 
beautiful  and  grand  affection  toward  God  in  his  Son,  and  a  more 
glorious  hope  of  the  Hereafter,  by  the  Gospel,  —  if  we  do  not  give 
these  by  that  instrumentality  to  those  who  have  them  not,  we 
are  mean  and  greedy,  dastardly  in  temper,  and  God's  frown  must 
rest  upon  us. 

But  then,  beyond  this,  the  need  of  the  communities  throughout 
the  earth  is  for  the  same  manifestation  of  God  in  his  Son.  For 
communities  are  primarily  moral  bodies,  as  being  made  up  of  in- 
dividual moral  persons.  They  are  afterward  political,  or  commer- 
cial, or  industrial,  or  whatever;  but  primarily  they  are  moral 
communities,  and  all  their  needs  are  fundamentally  moral  needs. 
Only  after  these  come  their  domestic  needs,  their  social  needs, 
their  needs  for  the  effective  prosecution  of  their  life-work,  their 
needs  for  commercial  relations  with  other  people.  The  funda- 
mental need  is  the  moral  need ;  and  what  ministers  to  that  is, 
therefore,  at  the  basis  of  all  true  civilization.  Men  of  the  world 
often  fail  to  recognize  this  ;  but  it  is  as  manifest  to  one  s  thought, 
if  the  thought  be  clear,  as  are  the  stars  in  the  undimmed  heaven 
The  moral  need  is  fundamental,  and  the  ministry  to  that  need 
must  be  moral  also. 

Here  is  the  basis,  as  I  have  said,  of  all  true  civilization.  Try- 
ing to  build  a  civilization  without  this,  on  the  mere  selfish  instincts 
of  men,  is  trying  to  build  a  house  on  shifting  sands  or  fragile 
shale.  It  is  trying  to  lift  a  building,  like  this  in  which  we  are 
gathered,  by  attaching  ropes  and  pulleys  to  the  roof  to  hoist  it 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  25 

higher,  while  pushing  up  the  eaves  with  poles  on  either  side.  We 
must  have  the  moral  basis  beneath  civilization  in  order  that  we 
may  accomplish  anything  for  the  permanent  welfare  of  man,  and 
for  the  glory  of  God  in  that  welfare.  Yet  other  religions  have 
not  the  power  to  supply  this  need.  They  do  not  put  in  operation 
the  instruments  and  the  forces  which  are  requisite  to  this  result, 
and  therefore  it  is  that  they  fail.  In  any  Parliament  of  Religions 
there  may  be  much  comparison  of  opinions  and  of  speculations. 
He  that  hath  a  dream  tells  his  dream,  and  he  that  hath,  or  thinks 
he  hath,  a  prophecy,  gives  utterance  to  his  prophecy.  But  there 
is  no  religion  save  that  of  the  New  Testament,  save  that  which 
gives  the  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ,  which  can  put  the 
moral  basis  beneath  human  society  and  human  civilization. 

It  is  this  need  of  men,  remember,  and  this  immense  need  of 
communities  and  peoples,  which  made  the  travail  of  his  soul  for 
Jesus  Christ  our  Master.  The  voices  of  the  world  are  on  a  minor 
key ;  the  dominant  note  in  the  experience  and  history  of  the  world 
is  a  wail ;  and  Christ  came  that  he  might,  by  his  tidings  from 
above,  change  that  wail  into  victorious  music,  to  which  the  race 
should  march  to  the  millennium.  His  ideal  is  the  consistent 
majestic  ideal  of  an  enlightened,  purified,  exhilarated  race,  full  of 
strength  because  full  of  moral  and  spiritual  life,  through  his  reve- 
lation of  God  and  of  the  Hereafter.  Only  that  ideal  interprets  the 
advent,  the  cross,  and  the  illustrious  ascension  of  Christ ;  it  inter- 
prets the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  follows  ;  and  that  is  to  be 
your  ideal  and  mine  if  we  would  stand  near  to  the  heart  of  the 
Master.  Surely  no  other  conception  ever  declared  to  men  on 
earth  is  so  great  and  so  inspiring  as  that  of  a  purified  race  through 
this  discovery  of  God  in  his  Son  ! 

Observe  that  that  Gospel  has  the  power  for  this  which  other 
religions  lack.  You  say,  "Why,  it  seems  to  me  a  very  small 
power ;  you  can  carry  it  in  the  New  Testament !  "  Yes  ;  the  elec- 
tric power  is  mighty  in  its  final  manifestation,  but  how  silently  it 
traverses  the  wires  !  It  only  breaks  into  a  transient  spark  here  and 
there,  where  the  wires  disconnect ;  and  yet  that  is  the  force  which 
eliminates  oceans  and  binds  continents  together  on  the  globe. 
Steam  power  does  not  seem  to  be  great  as  the  child  watches  the 


126  THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

vapor,  lifting  the  lid  of  the  kettle,  escaping  and  letting  the  lid 
drop  back.  It  does  not  seem  great  as  you  watch  it  ascending  from 
the  engine,  a  mere  vapor,  shining  in  the  sunlight  and  melting  into 
the  air.  But  that  is  the  power  which  draws  the  trains  and  drives 
the  steamship  over  the  riotous  waters,  trampling  them  into  a 
floor;  that  is  the  power  which  works  in  all  the  multitudes  of 
machineries  throughout  civilized  lands ;  that  is  the  power  before 
which  the  mountain  shrinks,  is  ploughed  and  carved  with  marvelous 
tunnels  —  a  tremendous  power,  though  slight  in  appearance.  Every 
power,  remember,  is  great  according  to  its  efficacy,  not  according 
to  its  phenomena.  All  civilization,  if  you  think  of  it  rightly, 
depends  at  last  on  invisible  forces  —  on  the  mind  in  man,  which 
no  one  ever  saw ;  on  the  will,  which  no  man  ever  grasped  with  his 
hand;  on  the  heroic  purpose,  on  the  noble  character  —  all  of 
which  are  invisible.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  comes  in  the  Hne  with 
these  silent  and  invisible  forces,  and  operates  for  the  magnificent 
effects  of  which  I  have  spoken. 

Men  make  a  most  absurd  estimate,  often,  of  the  value  and 
power,  and  the  essential  fruitfulness,  of  mere  physical  instruments. 
I  have  heard  them  say,  "  Send  improved  agricultural  implements 
to  those  whom  you  wish  to  benefit ;  send  power-looms,  send  print- 
ing presses."  Let  us  not  forget  that  every  physical  instrument  of 
progress,  as  we  call  it,  derives  its  value  and  its  power  from  the 
community  in  which  it  is  set  in  operation.  You  send  the  type- 
writer to  the  hut  of  the  Eskimo,  and  what  can  he  do  with  it? 
He  cannot  eat  it,  he  cannot  sleep  in  it,  he  cannot  use  it  as  a 
weapon,  he  cannot  dig  away  the  snows  with  it ;  it  is  perfectly  use- 
less for  all  his  purposes.  You' send  the  telescope  into  the  midst 
of  a  kraal  of  African  huts,  and  of  what  value  is  that  telescope 
there?  But  you  give  to  those  Africans  or  to  the  Eskimo  this 
power  which  comes  from  the  manifestation  of  God  in  his  Son,  in 
his  love,  in  his  purposes  of  grace  and  of  glory,  and  the  typewriter 
has  thereby  come  to  its  use,  and  the  telescope  is  turned  to  inter- 
pret the  heavens.  For  wheresoever  the  discovery  of  God  comes, 
there  comes  to  the  man  a  new  self-respect,  a  new  aspiration  after 
higher  things,  a  new  desire  for  celestial  sympathies,  a  new  purpose 
of  usefulness  and  progress  in  the  world.    There  comes  superiority 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  2  / 

to  the  circumstances  of  life ;  there  comes  a  courage  that  looks 
death  in  the  face  ;  there  come  social  sympathies ;  there  come  the 
elements  and  the  developments  of  a  new,  generous,  and  beautiful 
society.  There  is  not  a  great  journal  in  this  city  or  in  New  York, 
in  Boston  or  Chicago,  or  anywhere  else,  that  does  not  depend 
upon  the  intelligent  and  responsive  community  around  it,  before 
it,  and  behind  it,  for  its  power.  Without  such  a  community,  the 
most  eloquent  appeals  are  like  an  attempt  to  shout  in  a  vacuum. 
The  Chinese  had  the  movable  type  long  before  Europe,  and  they 
employed  it  in  multiplying  copies  of  the  Nine  Classics,  their 
ancient  literature,  and  in  stamping  tea-chests.  You  give  the  same 
movable  type  into  the  hands  of  a  people  like  our  people,  trained 
by  the  Gospel,  and  journalism  springs  up,  and  all  literary  effort 
results,  and  a  generous  literature  is  produced  and  distributed. 
You  have  brought  in  a  new  intellectual  as  well  as  a  new  and 
nobler  social  life. 

Science  depends  upon  that.  Scientists  are  sometimes  in  the  way 
of  speaking  sneeringly  of  Christianity,  as  of  something  outworn. 
They  regard  it  very  much  as  Festus  did,  as  a  kind  of  Jewish 
superstition ;  something  concerning  one  Jesus,  who  was  dead, 
whom  his  disciples  declared  to  be  alive.  Ah,  but  except  for  the 
power  of  that  Gospel,  through  the  manifestation  of  God  in  his 
Son  to  a  community,  science  there  would  be  as  unfamiliar  as 
summer-gardens  on  arctic  parallels  !  It  is  this  power  within, 
which  lifts  society  toward  new  aspirations  and  new  attainments, 
and  nothing  else  will  do  it.  For,  with  the  new  spirit  stirring,  come 
the  new  inventions,  the  new  implements,  and  the  new  riches.  I 
have  wondered  often  whether  Paul  did  not  mean  something 
besides  spiritual  riches  when  he  said  so  emphatically  :  *'  As  being 
poor,  yet  making  many  rich."  Christendom  is  rich  because  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  is  in  it ;  and  any  society  becomes  rich,  even  in 
material  wealth,  as  the  power  of  that  Gospel  reveals  itself  more 
and  more  clearly. 

This  is  not  theoretical ;  it  is  not  fanciful.  The  demonstration 
of  it  is  built  indissolubly  into  the  history  of  the  world.  It  was  this 
which  gave  our  fathers  their  power,  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean 
and  on  this.     The  same  power  works  now  wherever  the  Gospel 


128  THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

goes ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  despotisms  hate  it  and  fight  it,  and, 
if  they  could,  would  bury  it  in  bloody  graves.  But  they  cannot. 
You  might  as  well  try  to  cut  the  sunshine  with  a  sabre,  and  leave 
dissevered  fragments  of  it  on  the  pavement.  You  might  as  well 
have  tried  in  the  ancient  time  to  stop  the  luminous  column  that 
marched  before  Israel,  over  the  rugged  wastes,  by  flinging  stones 
and  javelins  at  it.  You  might  as  well  now  undertake  to  shatter 
the  auroral  banners  in  the  sky  by  whiffs  of  grapeshot.  No 
despotism  ever  can  destroy  or  permanently  arrest  the  Gospel, 
because  it  has  the  light  of  God  upon  it,  and  bears  the  noblest  life 
of  men  within  it. 

We  are  to  remember,  moreover,  for  it  is  one  of  the  great  things 
about  which  we  are  all  agreed,  that  the  power  of  God  is  in  a 
special  sense  and  an  extraordinary  measure  behind  this  work  of 
proclaiming  his  Gospel,  in  which  is  his  own  revelation  of  himself 
to  all  mankind.  How  apt  we  are  to  feel  that  the  work  is  going 
forward  simply  by  human  instrumentality.  Yet,  if  there  is  any- 
thing that  history  shows,  it  is  that  there  is  that  silent,  transcendent, 
imperial,  imperishable  power  always  working  for  its  advancement. 
Remember  that  Christianity  came  into  the  world  with  the  in- 
tensest  possible  opposition  of  the  human  will  against  it.  In  the 
form  in  which  we  have  it,  and  in  which  we  delight  and  continue 
to  extend  it  in  the  earth,  it  tolerates  no  lust ;  it  allows  no  liberty 
to  animal  passion ;  it  consents  to  no  pride  on  the  part  of  man ;  it 
calls  him  to  humbleness  and  to  holiness,  and  against  that  sum- 
mons the  spirit  in  man  impetuously  and  imperiously  revolts.  And 
yet,  coming  into  the  world  thus,  and  carried  abroad  by  a  few 
mechanics,  it  conquered  the  Roman  Empire  !  It  seemed  before- 
hand as  impossible  that  it  should  do  that  as  that  it  should  turn  the 
Apennines  into  a  prairie,  or  scoop  up  the  Mediterranean  in  a 
child's  cup  and  pour  it  beyond  the  Gates  of  Hercules  into  the 
ocean.  But  it  accomplished  that,  and  the  signal  of  the  Cross  on 
the  banner  of  the  Empire  became  the  continual  witness  to  it  for  all 
time.  In  the  contest  of  the  early  middle  ages  between  faith  and 
barbarism,  between  the  faithful  disciples  and  your  ancestors  and 
mine,  —  painted  savages,  robbers  and  murderers  in  the  forests, 
pirates   on  the  seas,  —  it  was  this  Gospel  of    Christ  which  con- 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  29 

quered,  and  over  all  savagery  and  all  violence  of  man  erected  the 
Christian  commonwealths,  the  life  and  the  power  of  which  are  in 
all  the  earth  to-day.  This  supreme  energy  was  in  the  post- 
Reformation  period  as  well  as  in  the  earlier  time,  and  it  is  in  the 
world  to-day ;  so  that  wherever  the  messenger  of  the  Gospel  goes 
there  is  this  silent,  transcendent,  irresistible  power  of  the  Most 
High  behind  him.  Everything  has  to  give  way,  in  the  end,  to 
that ;  because  this  is  the  cause  which  is  dear  to  the  heart  of  God, 
and  for  his  glory  in  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  mankind. 
You  see  it  on  every  side,  you  see  it  in  the  present  day  just  as 
clearly  as  ever  in  the  past. 

Why  is  it  that  the  nations  are  now  drawing  nearer  together, 
over  every  land,  across  every  waste  of  ocean,  by  these  amazing 
modern  mechanisms  which  came  into  existence  with  modern 
missions,  and  were  never  dreamed  of  before  the  missionary  era  ? 
What  is  it  that  makes  China  so  near  to-day  to  New  York,  nearer 
in  time  than  Ohio  was  in  the  day  when  Marietta  was  settled? 
How  is  it  that  we  come  to  know  more  of  Africa  to-day,  an  utterly 
unknown  continent  thirty  years  ago,  than  we  of  the  eastern 
United  States  knew  of  the  great  states  of  Washington  and  Ore- 
gon when  our  first  heroic  missionaries  went  there,  and  saved  those 
states  for  the  American  Union  ?  Every  power  that  stands  against 
the  Gospel  has  to  go  down. 

I  know  it  seems  for  a  time  as  if  the  onset  of  violent  physical 
force  was  to  be  enough  to  arrest  its  spread.  Men  fear  that  Turkey 
is  to  put  an  end,  by  its  deadly  scimitars,  to  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  that  great  Empire.  The  Turkish  Empire  always  seems 
to  me,  as  I  look  at  it  on  the  map  or  in  its  history,  like  a  vast, 
magnificent  Oriental  robe,  stamped  with  splendid  and  stately 
figures,  emblazoned  in  all  its  reach  with  symbols  of  heroic  com- 
bat, with  threads  of  gold  and  silver  interwoven  thickly  with  the 
woof.  Magnificent  it  is,  in  its  extent,  in  the  variety  of  its 
resources,  in  the  wonderful  history  which  has  been  wrought 
upon  it.  It  is  a  texture  of  Oriental  magnificence,  that  has  been 
dipped  and  soaked  in  blood.  But  it  is  to  bear,  as  certainly  as 
God  liveth,  as  certainly  as  the  cross  was  raised  on  Calvary,  as 
certainly  as  the  human  soul  remains  sensitive  to  divine  inspiration 


I30 


THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


—  it   is  to  bear  by  and   by,  and  not  far  hence,  the  monogram 
of  Christ  on  all  its  majestic  and  glittering  expanse. 

Men  speak  of  China,  with  its  immense  area,  with  its  multitudi- 
nous populations,  as  being  impossible  to  reach,  penetrate,  and  sub- 
due to  Christ.  If  China  resists  the  Gospel,  it  is  to  go  to  fractured 
pieces,  like  a  potter's  vessel.  Pray  God  it  may  not,  but  may 
accept  that  which  has  given  power  to  other  nations  such  as  China 
desires  to  have  for  itself !  But  this  is  the  law  of  history ;  whatso- 
ever withstands  the  manifestation  of  God  in  Christ  is  broken 
before  it.  There  may  be  occasional  and  temporary  revulsions  of 
waves  here  and  there ;  but  the  mighty  and  tremendous  tide  of  an 
unseen  power  which  nothing  withstands,  is  sweeping  forward 
toward  millennium  all  the  time,  and  everything  that  resists  it  has 
to  go  down  before  it.  There  is  only  one  banner  in  the  world  that 
never  fails  and  is  never  furled,  and  that  is  the  banner  of  the  Son 
of  God  ! 

We  see  this  in  history,  and  we  see  it  as  well  in  the  modern  advance 
of  missions,  and  of  our  own  Board.  Remember  that  eighty-five 
years  ago,  when  an  honored  officer  in  my  church,  the  grandson 
of  the  second  President  of  this  Board,  who  served  you  this  after- 
noon at  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  was  a  boy  six  years 
old,  —  so  recently  as  that,  —  we  had  nothing  belonging  to  this 
Board,  in  all  the  world,  except  nine  hundred  dollars  in  the  treasury 
to  send  out  and  sustain  seven  missionaries,  with  the  unfailing  and 
unconquerable  faith  of  those  who  had  given  the  money.  That  was 
all.  Nowhere  in  any  heathen  land  was  there  the  least  indication 
of  the  beginning  of  the  recent  movement.  A  Christian  Church 
in  Turkey  was  a  thing  only  existing  in  the  dreams  of  those  who 
believed  that  Christ  was  to  have  that  Empire  at  last,  a  thing  to  be 
realized  in  the  far  future.  Now  we  have  one  hundred  and  fifty 
churches  there.  A  Christian  printing-press  in  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire seemed  as  impossible  as  a  flying  stone  statue  in  the  air ;  and 
now  five  hundred  millions  of  pages  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Arabic 
tongue  have  there  been  printed  and  circulated.  High  schools,  com- 
mon schools,  boarding  schools,  colleges  —  it  could  not  be  conceived 
that  they  should  ever  exist  under  the  dominion  of  the  Sultan,  and 
within  the  regions  where  Mohammedanism  reigns.     Now  there 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  3  I 

are  thirty-two  high  schools  for  boys,  twenty-two  for  girls,  with 
twelve  hundred  and  more  pupils  in  them.  There  are  nearly  three 
himdred  common  schools,  with  sixteen  thousand  and  more  pupils 
in  them.  I  observe,  by  the  last  summary,  that  our  operations 
abroad  give  the  following  statistics :  The  number  of  missions  is 
20;  the  number  of  preaching  places,  1,461;  the  average  total 
congregations,  72,000;  the  number  of  laborers  in  the  field  under 
this  Board  alone,  3,679  ;  the  number  of  churches,  461  ;  the  num- 
ber of  church  members,  44,413;  the  donations  given  by  the 
native  converts  to  Christianity,  $109,000;  the  number  of  com- 
mon schools,  1,0  2  5  ;  the  whole  number  under  education,  53,615. 
Well,  these  figures  are  not  immense ;  but  remember,  as  I  have 
said,  the  unrelaxing  and  world-wide  opposition  against  which  this 
work  has  had  to  be  carried  forward,  the  humbleness  and  small- 
ness  of  its  almost  unnoticed  beginning,  and  the  briefness  of  the 
time  through  which  it  has  been  working,  and  you  see  at  once 
what  predictions  there  are,  in  even  its  present  achievement,  of  its 
future  progress  and  its  ultimate  triumphant  success. 

The  astronomer  asks  you  to  give  him  three  points  in  the  move- 
ment of  a  star,  and  then  he  will  calculate  its  orbit.  Here  is  one 
point :  the  beginning  of  this  Board  eighty-five  years  ago,  in  such 
utter  feebleness.  Here  is  another  point :  tsventy-five  years  ago, 
sixty  years  after,  when  the  great  Presbyterian  body  separated 
from  the  Congregationalists  in  this  work,  and  seemed  to  split  the 
vital  frame  in  two,  carrying  their  energy  with  their  resources  and 
property  to  their  own  Board  of  Missions,  and  leaving  the  old  and 
honored  Society  weakened  by  their  departure,  though  attended 
still  by  their  sympathy,  their  affection,  and  their  prayers.  An 
income  of  $460,000  was  diminished  the  next  year  to  $428,000, 
while  there  had  been  at  the  earlier  period  a  debt  of  $22,000,  which 
had  to  continue.  This  is  the  second  point.  Now  we  come  to  the 
third  point,  whose  statistics  I  have  read  :  where  we  have  received 
$716,000  within  the  year,  where  there  have  been  these  splendid 
pledges  on  the  floor  here  for  the  utter  and  final  removal  of  our 
debt,  which  is  surely  to  be  accomplished  within  the  six  months 
to  come.  If  you  take  the  first  point,  and  the  second,  and  the 
third,  then  you  may  calculate  the  magnificent  and  triumphant 


132  THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

orbit  of  this  great  missionary  Board  which  is  in  the  end  to  en- 
lighten and  ennoble  all  the  earth. 

But  let  us  not  forget  that  the  power  of  God  is  shown  just  as 
clearly,  and  to  the  devout  spirit  even  more  impressively,  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  missionaries  whom  we  send  out.    They  are 
moved  to  go  by  their  love  for  God  in  Christ,  and  by  their  desire  to 
communicate  the  blessings  of  his  Gospel  to  those  whom  they  have 
never  seen.     It  is  a  wonder  in  history  !     These  missionaries  are 
not  all  of  them  the  greatest  or  the  saintliest  of  Christians.     Some- 
times they  are,  not  always.     I  cannot  but  think  that  the  fact  that 
they  are  not  always  such  gives  simply  a  new  emphasis  to  this 
manifestation  of  God  in  their  experience,  and  in  the  life  of  their 
hearts.     They  go  out  from  pleasant  circumstances  of  life,  from 
homes  as  delightful  to  them  as  yours  and  mine  are  to  us.     They 
go  to  confront  discomfort,  privation,  peril,  sometimes  death  — 
death  even  by  murderous  hands  —  on  foreign  shores,  on  the  coral 
reefs,  in  the  Indian  jungles,  in  the  Turkish  interior,  by  the  riversides 
of  China,  in  the  depths  of  Africa.     They  go  far  from  the  homes 
of  culture,  from  all  social  amenities  and  courtesies,  from  the  tone 
of   the  Sabbath  bell,  from  the  graves  where  their  kindred  are 
buried,  from  the  churches  to  which  their  hearts  cling.     They  go, 
and  if  they  return  for  a  brief  vacation  they  face  the  ocean  and 
the  wilderness  again,  with  undiminished  readiness.     They  leave 
their  children  on  our  shores,  whom  they  are  not  to  see  again  for 
years,  until  the  child  has  grown  to  the  fulness  of  youth,  when 
the  mother  may,  after  ten  or  twelve  years,  look  again  upon  the 
little  one  whom  she  left,  now  matured  into  the  beauty  and  the 
power  of  young  manhood  or  womanhood.     That  is  the  sorest 
strain  on  the  missionary  heart ;  but  they  meet  it,  and  go  again. 
They  labor  long  with  no  visible  success,  or  only  the  smallest. 
They  lay  down  their  lives  in  the  service  to  which  they  have  given 
them,  cultured  men  and  women  dying  with   only  dusky  faces 
tearful  over  them,  and  only  the  accents  of  a  foreign  tongue  falling 
on  their  ears  before  they  hear  the  acclaiming  welcome  of  the 
angels  in  the  heavens. 

Surely  the  Spirit  of  God  is  in  all  this  !     They  go,  and  they  are 
in  victorious  joy  in  the  midst  of  privation  and  service  and  sacri- 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  I  33 

fice.  Meanwhile  Christians  tarrying  at  home,  pampered  with  all 
Christian  luxuries,  overfed  with  all  Christian  instruction,  their 
hardest  trial  to  sit  patiently  through  a  sermon  more  than  thirty 
minutes  long,  who  want  to  ride  to  Heaven  on  silver-plated 
bicycles  with  rubber  rims  and  pneumatic  tires,  are  restless,  mal- 
content, ungrateful  for  the  benefits  they  receive,  and  querulous 
for  any  discomforts  which  they  suffer. 

The  inspiring  note  of  Victory  is  put  into  the  Christian  life  by 
missionary  devotion  and  missionary  service.  And  even  after  they 
are  dead,  how  their  work  spreads  and  fructifies,  under  the  shining 
of  God's  face,  and  under  the  dews  of  his  grace  descending  on  it ! 
so  that  the  grave  of  a  missionary  becomes  the  centre  of  a  circle 
of  Christian  disciples.  I  have  never  forgotten  the  story  of  that 
African  chief  who  had  heard  unmoved  the  words  of  the  mission- 
ary, Mr.  Adams  I  think,  who  had  rebelled  against  all  his  instruc- 
tion and  exhortation,  but  who  at  last  saw  him  die,  of  a  wasting  and 
painful  disease ;  he  watched  the  serenity  of  his  face,  and  saw  the 
gladness  in  his  eye,  and  he  was  converted  by  the  dying  testimony 
while  he  had  resisted  all  living  words.  So  it  is  that  the  missionary 
conquers  through  his  death,  and  after  his  death,  and  the  great 
circle  of  those  seeking  God  widens  from  his  grave.  Therefore  it 
is  that  these  missionaries  become  to  us  very  priests  of  God ;  they 
are  not  only  instructors,  they  are  mediators  under  Christ,  bring- 
ing a  higher  life  into  our  souls.  We  reverence  them,  therefore, 
and  account  it  a  blessing  to  have  their  presence  with  us  and  their 
benediction  upon  us.  Therefore  it  is  that  their  very  graves 
become  sacred  to  us.  Yonder  four  hundred  acres  of  Green- 
wood Cemetery  hold  to  themselves  the  hearts  of  millions,  whose 
friends  have  there  been  laid  down  in  their  last  sleep.  The 
national  cemeteries  of  the  country  hold  the  heart  of  the  Nation  to 
themselves ;  and  these  graves  of  missionaries,  scattered  over  the 
earth,  hold  the  heart  of  the  Church  to  themselves.  Harriet 
Newell,  at  Mauritius ;  Harriet  Winslow,  at  Ceylon ;  Martyn,  at 
Tokat ;  Grant,  at  Mosul ;  Perkins  and  Stoddard,  at  Oroomiah ; 
Levi  Parsons,  uncle  of  the  honored  governor  of  this  State  of 
New  York,  who  died  at  Alexandria  —  these  places  are  sacred  in 
the  thought  and  to  the  hearts  of  Christians,  because   of  those 


134 


THE  AIM  OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


missionary  graves.  The  earth  was  consecrated  once  for  all  by  the 
cross  of  Christ  set  up  upon  it,  and  it  is  consecrated  afresh  by 
every  missionary  grave.  Every  land  where  a  missionary  father  or 
mother  has  fallen  is  sacred  unto  God.  It  is  the  possession  for- 
evermore  of  the  world-girdhng  Church  of  Christ. 

Now,  this  is  the  power  of  God  working  in  the  souls  of  men,  as 
we  have  seen  that  power  working  in  history.  There  is  a  Divine 
energy  behind  all  this  work  of  declaring  the  manifestation  of 
God  in  Christ  to  the  nations  who  sit  in  darkness.  It  is  unheard ; 
but  the  footfalls  of  Omnipotence  are  alway  silent.  It  is  unseen ; 
but  the  forecasts  of  Omniscience  never  reveal  themselves  in  fire 
and  thunder.  It  is  behind  all  this  work,  the  power  of  God,  which 
orders  the  seasons  in  their  march,  and  which  swings  the  suns  on 
the  word  of  His  power.  It  is  that  power  which  is  for  us,  and  for 
those  who  go  to  testify  for  us  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 

Then,  my  friends,  here  is  duty ;  here  is  privilege.  You  are  a 
confessed  disciple  of  Christ?  Here  is  your  work.  You  are  a  man 
or  a  woman  of  philanthropic  sentiment  and  impulse  ?  Here  is  your 
work.  The  marvel  is  that  the  treasures  of  the  land  are  not  poured 
into  this  magnificent  enterprise.  The  mind  of  the  world  was 
dilated  when  this  continent  was  discovered  ;  the  mind  of  Christen- 
dom is  uplifted,  expanded,  as  well  as  energized,  by  this  history 
and  purpose  of  modern  missions.  We  draw  nearer  the  heart  of 
Christ  in  this  work  ;  he  is  exalted  before  us  as  our  King,  as  well  as 
our  teacher  and  our  friend.  The  privilege  of  life  is  to  follow  in 
the  steps  of  the  Most  High,  and  the  one  question  which  comes  to 
us  is  this :  In  this  prophetic  age,  in  this  divinest  work,  are  you 
who  claim  to  love  the  Lord  willing  to  keep  step  with  God  ?  If 
you  are,  then  your  faith  shall  be  renewed ;  then  the  spirit  of 
Christian  heroism  in  yourselves  shall  be  quickened  and  exalted ; 
then  you  shall  have  a  joy  like  that  of  the  missionary,  in  your  own 
heart ;  then  you  shall  see  the  future  with  illumined  eyes,  and  wait 
the  great  immortality  with  exulting  spirit ;  for  then  God  shall  be 
in  you  as  well  as  in  history,  as  well  as  in  the  missionary,  as  well  as 
in  all  his  operations  on  the  earth.  Children  are  to  be  trained  for 
this ;  women  are  to  give  to  it,  as  they  do,  nobly,  generously,  mag- 
nificently already,  more  nobly  still,  more   generously  and   more 


THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  135 

magnificently  in  time  to  come.  We  are  to  be  consecrated  to  this 
sublimest  service,  as  God's  Spirit  touches  our  hearts,  and  his  prov- 
idence puts  into  our  hands  the  means  for  performing  it.  Here 
is  duty ;  here  is  privilege ;  the  privilege  of  working  in  the  sublimest 
enterprise  of  the  earth,  for  which  multitudes  have  died,  for  which 
the  Son  of  God  gave  Himself. 

Men  of  the  world  say,  "  Oh,  yes,  but  you  are  all  visionaries ; 
you  have  an  idea  of  something  that  can  never  be  realized,  and  it 
is  idle  to  call  upon  us  to  take  part  in  an  enterprise  which  is  so 
essentially  chimerical  as  is  this."  Visionaries?  They  were  called 
visionaries  who,  in  the  gloom  of  the  catacombs,  foresaw  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire ;  but  the  crash  came,  and  struck 
the  fastening  fetters  from  hands  and  limbs.  They  were  called 
visionaries  who  at  the  beginning  said  that  the  movable  type  would 
batter  down  fortresses,  and  outlive  superb  rock-built  cathedrals ; 
but  it  has  come  to  pass.  They  were  called  visionaries  who  at  first 
uttered  the  duty  and  declared  the  privilege  of  nations  to  settle 
disputes  among  themselves  by  arbitration.  "A  dream  of  the 
pious " —  that  was  the  word  applied  to  their  scheme  —  "a  reverie 
of  the  devout,"  at  which  practical  statesmen  and  soldiers  could 
only  laugh ;  but  arbitration  between  nations  is  now,  and  is  to  be 
more  and  more,  the  established  magisterial  way  of  concluding 
great  disputes.  They  were  called  visionaries  even,  and  only 
lately,  in  your  cities  and  in  ours,  who  saw  the  sterile  and  rocky 
wastes  outside  the  town  limits,  and  believed  that  they  could  be 
transformed  into  the  beautiful  pleasure-grounds  of  ever-advancing 
and  majestical  cities.  They  were  called  visionaries  who  foresaw 
the  emancipation  of  a  race  on  our  shores,  and  who  wrought  for 
it  and  fought  for  it,  imtil  it  had  become  the  sublimest  fact  in  the 
modem  secular  history. 

Christ,  remember,  was  the  supreme  Visionary  of  the  world, 
when  he  said,  as  the  Greeks  came  to  him,  saying,  "  We  would  see 
Jesus,"  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me  ! " 
The  disciples  thought  that  he  meant  lifted  up  on  the  throne  of  his 
glory,  but  afterward  they  had  to  write,  "  This  spake  he,  signifying 
by  what  death  he  should  die."  If  there  was  ever  an  apparent 
absurdity  uttered  in  human  speech,  it  was  this  word  of  the  Master : 


136  THE  AIM   OF  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

"  If  I  be  lifted  up  on  the  Roman  cross,  for  the  scoffing  of  the 
Jews,  for  the  contempt  of  the  Romans,  I  by  that  cross  will  win 
and  conquer  the  World,"  But  he  is  doing  it.  Let  us  be  "  vision- 
aries," hke  the  disciples  in  the  catacombs ;  like  the  prophets  of 
old,  who  foresaw  the  coming  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord ;  like  the 
Master  himself ;  until  we  rise,  with  all  his  redeemed  and  triumph- 
ing children,  to  see  his  face  in  his  glory,  with  a  star  for  every  scar 
on  that  majestic  and  immortal  brow,  with  the  crown  of  thorns 
replaced  by  the  crown  of  a  celestial  eternal  majesty  I 


VIII. 

fncenttoejs  to  jHij^jsionarr  2Uop6* 

ADDRESS   AT   THE   ANNUAL   MEETING   AT   TOLEDO,  1896. 


INCENTIVES  TO  MISSIONARY  WORK. 


Mr.  President,  Brethren  of  the  American  Board,  Brethren  the 
Honored  Missionaries  of  the  Board  who  are  present,  Christian 
Friends,  and  Friends  of  Missions, —  We  are  gathered  in  this  beauti- 
ful and  prosperous  city  of  Toledo,  with  which  I  am  sure  that  many 
of  us  had  not  been  previously  familiar,  under  circumstances  some- 
what exceptional.  We  are  gathered  here  for  missionary  consulta- 
tion, deliberation,  action,  while  the  United  States  are  being  moved 
to  profound  depths  by  a  great  and  urgent  political  campaign,  the 
discussion  of  which  extends  over  all  the  land,  reaches  into  every 
home  and  every  shop,  and  is  heard  continually  repeated  on  the 
streets.  Processions  are  marching,  and  meetings  vaster  than  this 
are  assembled,  while  the  columns  of  newspapers  are  filled  with 
paragraphs  which  strike  on  the  ear  like  volleys  of  musketry.  It 
is  right  and  reasonable  that  this  should  be ;  for  the  issues  at  stake 
are  important  and  far-reaching,  and  it  is  the  right,  the  privilege 
and  the  duty,  of  every  citizen  to  express  his  convictions  on  the 
questions  which  are  before  the  nation,  in  words,  and,  when  the 
opportunity  comes,  in  the  ballot, —  the  ballot  of  which  it  was  said, 
you  know,  that, — 

"  It  falls  as  silent  and  as  still  as  snowflakes  fall  upon  the  sod, 
But  executes  the  freeman's  will  as  lightning  does  the  will  of  God." 

It  is  the  duty,  I  say,  as  well  as  the  privilege,  of  every  citizen  to 
express  his  conviction  by  the  ballot ;  and  it  is  well  that  he  consider 
largely  beforehand  the  questions  involved,  and  that  he  be  moved 
to  intense  conviction  by  the  action  of  his  own  mind  and  by  the 


140  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK. 

communicated  conviction  of  others.  It  is  for  his  education,  as 
well  as  for  his  direct  immediate  action  upon  the  course  of  the 
nation,  that  he  is  to  do  this.  This  has  been  said  to  be  "  a  cam- 
paign of  education."  Every  political  campaign  is  a  campaign  of 
education ;  and  the  possession  of  the  ballot,  with  the  sense  of 
obligation  for  the  use  of  the  ballot,  is  one  of  the  most  important 
means  of  instruction  to  the  American  people. 

This  is  right,  therefore,  and  reasonable ;  and  we  all  sympathize 
with  the  profound  and  impassioned  feehng  which  is  behind  this 
wide  movement.  We  may  sympathize  with  one  party  or  another 
party,  but  with  the  general  movement  of  the  public  mind  to  the 
consideration  of  these  questions,  and  to  the  appropriate  action 
following,  we  are  all  committed  in  our  inmost  spirit.  We  are  all 
profoundly  persuaded  of  the  value  and  the  propriety  of  the 
movement. 

We  are  met  at  a  time,  too,  when  the  nations  of  the  earth  are 
largely  in  a  condition  of  change  and  turmoil.  Not  merely  in 
Cuba,  where  the  insurrectionary  movement  seems  cresting  toward 
an  ultimate  triumph  over  the  Spanish  government  —  whether  to 
realize  it  in  one  year,  or  five  years,  or  twenty  years,  we  cannot  tell, — 
but  plainly  working  toward  that  result,  steadily,  energetically,  with 
unlimited  sacrifice,  apparently,  of  property  and  of  life ;  not 
merely  in  Turkey,  where  outrages  have  been  committed  upon  our 
American  citizens  there  resident,  native  or  naturalized,  by  the 
story  of  which  our  hearts  have  been  thrilled,  and  our  blood  has 
been  almost  stayed  in  our  veins ;  not  merely  in  Russia,  which 
is  reaching  out  for  a  port  far  south  of  Vladivostock,  and  for 
dominance  in,  or  the  possession  of,  Korea,  —  not  merely  in  these 
countries  are  these  changes  going  forward ;  but  in  England  and 
in  France,  in  Italy  and  in  Spain,  in  Germany  and  in  Austria, 
there  is  discussion,  constant  and  energetic,  of  the  new  questions 
which  are  coming  up,  —  questions  of  finance  and  commerce, 
questions  of  religion,  and  of  the  new  education.  The  present 
century  has  been  a  century  of  vast  upheaval,  and  it  is  full  of  the 
prophecies  of  changes  to  come.  The  strong  man  of  the  civilized 
world  is  rousing  from  slumber,  and  convulsively  stretching  his 
limbs ;  and  there  is  no  social  or  political  forecast  that  can  deter- 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK.  141 

mine  for  us  the  issues  of  the  movements  which  are  thus  going  on, 
which  arouse  our  attention,  and  with  which  we  have  concern,  not 
so  much  directly  as  indirectly,  through  the  effects  that  are  sure  to 
come. 

We  are  met,  then,  in  this  time  of  critical  interest  in  our  own 
country  and  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  and  it  is  a  perfectly 
fair  question  which  men  of  the  world  sometimes  put  to  us, — 
which  a  man  put  to  me  not  long  since  :  "  What  in  the  world  are 
you  going  to  Toledo  for,  to  meet  with  others  to  consider  the 
interests  of  Foreign  Missions?  Why  don't  you  give  strength  and 
time  to  the  work  at  home,  to  the  political  questions  which  are  so 
imminent  and  important  ?  If  you  cannot  affect  —  as  you  cannot 
—  foreign  politics  directly,  in  the  civilized  world,  why  do  you  go 
to  a  comparatively  distant  point  from  your  home  in  order  to  talk 
with  others  in  regard  to  this  work  of  preaching  the  Gospel  in  the 
world?"  It  is  a  fair  question ;  and  a  question  to  which  a  reason- 
able and,  as  I  think,  a  satisfactory  answer  can  be  given,  as  it  ought 
to  be  given. 

It  is  enough  to  say,  really,  if  any  one  thinks  of  it  seriously,  that 
we  come  hither  that  we  may  consult  together  for  the  elevation 
and  purification  of  personal  souls  in  men  and  women,  scattered 
among  the  different  and  distant  unevangelized  peoples  of  the 
earth.  For  every  man  who  has  a  soul  within  him,  and  is  conscious 
of  possessing  it,  knows  in  the  inmost  depths  of  his  consciousness 
that  that  is  the  thing  which  makes  him  a  man  ;  that  is  the  thing 
which  transcends  in  importance  everything  else  that  he  ever  pos- 
sesses or  can  possess  on  the  earth,  without  which  the  person  him- 
self would  disappear  in  the  nothingness  of  annihilation.  Every 
man  knows  that ;  and  he  knows  therefore  that  when  this  soul  has 
been  made  in  the  image  of  God,  has  been  made  to  share  the  im- 
mortality of  God,  and  has  the  eternal  ages  open  before  it,  there 
is  no  work  on  the  earth  so  great,  so  glorious,  so  supreme  in 
essential  importance,  as  that  of  reaching  this  soul,  personal  and 
allied  in  nature  with  God,  and  lifting  it  through  God's  grace  into 
fellowship  with  himself,  so  that  it  shall  be  ready  for  the  ages  which 
are  to  open  before  it,  so  that  it  shall  stand  undimmed  in  beauty 
amid   the  throng  of  the   celestial  intelligences,  and  before  the 


142  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY   WORK. 

glory  of  the  throne  of  God.  To  have  done  anything  for  that 
effect  will  be  to  us  a  joy  forever.  To  have  that  in  view  gives  con- 
secration to  every  meeting  assembled  to  consult  with  regard  to  it. 
And  we  are  right  in  turning  from  every  political  and  every  secular 
interest,  and  coming  together  to  consider  the  more  effective  way, 
the  more  immediate  means,  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  end, 
in  which  God  himself  is  interested,  for  which  his  Son  gave  his  life 
upon  the  cross,  in  which  spirits  of  light  have  the  intensest  concern  ; 
for  the  accomplishment  of  an  effect  that  is  to  last  while  the  uni- 
verse lasts,  and  while  God  exists  !  Surely  no  intelligent  man, 
admitting  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  personal  soul,  admitting 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  reaching  that  soul  by  heavenly  means 
to  lift  it  into  heavenly  expectation,  and  at  last  to  the  realization  of 
the  heavenly  promise,  can  deny  that  we  have  legitimately  come 
together. 

But  then,  we  have  other  aims  than  this.  They  are  all  subsidiary 
to  this  and  subordinate,  but  they  are  connected  with  it ;  and  they 
are  important  ends,  each  in  itself  and  all  in  their  combination. 
We  come  together  here,  not  that  we  may  act  upon  the  immediate 
political  struggle  going  on  in  the  country,  not  that  we  may  advance 
the  interests  of  either  candidate  or  of  either  party,  but  that  we 
may  make  the  politics  of  this  country  better  and  nobler  in  all  the 
coming  time  [applause],  and  that  we  may  do  that  by  exalting 
the  Gospel  to  its  proper  supremacy  in  those  poUtics.  We  come 
together  in  order  that  we  may  bring  the  supreme  interest  of  our 
people,  or  of  any  people,  clearly  before  the  minds  of  the  communi- 
ties with  which  we  are  associated. 

The  supreme  interest  of  politics  in  a  republican  government 
is  never  connected  with  the  question  of  currency,  whether  it  shall 
be  more  or  less,  or  of  what  sort  it  shall  be,  so  long  as  it  is  honest 
money,  accredited  at  its  face-value  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
[Loud  applause.]  The  supreme  interest  is  not  that  of  the  ques- 
tion of  free  trade  or  protection.  Some  of  us  may  think  protection 
the  better  doctrine  —  protection,  not  of  manufacturers  for  the 
increase  of  their  wealth,  but  protection  of  laborers,  for  the  sustain- 
ing of  their  wages  above  the  level  of  the  pauper  wages  paid  in 
other   countries.     [Applause.]     Some,  on  the   other  hand,  may 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY   WORK.  1 43 

think  free  trade  a  kind  of  secular  gospel  for  the  world,  and  that 
commerce  should  go  as  freely  and  universally,  in  the  exchange  of 
articles  of  manufacture  or  production,  as  Christianity  itself  goes ; 
that  the  American  workman  can  challenge  competition  with  the 
workman  of  foreign  lands  without  any  special  protection  around 
him.  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  say,  you  remember,  that  the  Ameri- 
can baby,  when  he  was  three  months  old,  lifted  himself,  looked  over 
the  side  of  his  cradle  to  examine  its  structure,  and  then  went  on 
to  invent  an  improvement.  [Laughter.]  The  fingers  of  Ameri- 
can workmen  have  often,  no  doubt,  more  brains  in  them  than  the 
heads  of  foreign  workmen.  But  that  is  not  the  question,  which- 
ever way  you  may  decide  it,  that  is  of  supreme  interest,  although 
it  has  its  interest,  and  that  interest  is  a  great  one.  The  supreme 
question  is  not  as  to  the  poHcy  of  the  government  in  one  direc- 
tion or  another,  provided  the  government  itself  is  maintained,  to 
preserve  public  order,  to  suppress  riot  and  insurrection  [ap- 
plause], to  enable  the  people  to  live  in  peaceable  habitations,  and 
to  make  its  power  felt  in  foreign  lands  for  the  protection  of 
American  citizens.     [Loud  applause.] 

But  the  supreme  interest  of  politics  in  a  country  like  this  is 
concentered  on  the  question  how  far  the  Decalogue  is  recognized 
in  the  land,  not  as  a  legendary  tradition  of  ethics,  not  as  a  code 
imposed  upon  an  ancient  people  by  arbitrary  authority,  but  as  the 
rock-basis  of  civilization,  and  of  all  true,  high,  moral  and  social 
development  and  culture  in  all  the  world.  The  question  is 
whether  its  Commandments  are  binding  upon  us ;  and  whether 
the  Beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  with  the  solemn  and 
majestic  admonitions  which  are  connected  with  them,  are  recog- 
nized, not  as  the  "  iridescent  dream  "  of  a  young  Galilean  me- 
chanic, but  as  the  fountain  Hght  of  all  our  seeing,  the  master  light 
of  all  our  day,  in  politics  and  in  society.  [Applause.]  Where 
these  are  recognized,  there  the  country  is  always  safe.  [Ap- 
plause.] In  other  lands,  with  peoples  differently  organized,  aris- 
tocratic, dynastic,  mihtary  influences  may  come  in  to  detenuine 
the  course  of  politics ;  but  in  a  country  like  ours,  with  an  in- 
structed and  free  people,  the  moral  governs,  in  the  long  run. 
And  where  the  moral  sentiment  and  conviction  of  a  nation  take 


144  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK. 

the  divine  ethics  as  the  rule  of  life,  the  rule  for  the  government  as 
well  as  the  rule  for  the  citizen,  there  government  is  secure,  there 
prosperity  is  continuous,  there  progress  is  certain. 

Now  we  wish  to  make  these  Divine  ethics  more  and  more  pre- 
dominant and  governing  in  this  country ;  and  to  do  it,  largely,  by 
the  influence  of  this  enterprise  for  Foreign  Missions.  We  are  not 
a  Home  Missionary  Society,  but  through  this  world-embracing 
work  of  Foreign  Missions  we  elevate  the  Gospel  and  the  Law  to 
their  proper  majesty  before  the  minds  of  men.  We  signalize 
them,  by  our  devotion  to  them,  by  our  willingness  to  serve  and 
sacrifice  on  their  behalf;  and  we  send  an  impulse  into  every 
church  however  small,  into  every  congregation  however  remote, 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel,  from  the  estimate  which  we 
manifestly  and  organically  place  upon  it  by  sending  it  into  all  the 
earth.  So  it  is  that  every  church  not  coming  into  this  work  of 
Foreign  Missions  becomes  sluggish,  inert,  effete.  We  know 
beforehand  that  it  will;  and  we  know  that  every  church  which 
enters  into  this  work,  and  glorifies  the  Gospel  by  this  effort  to 
send  it  to  other  peoples  of  the  earth  becomes  strong,  —  strong  in 
faith,  strong  in  purpose,  mighty  in  the  influence  that  radiates 
from  it  throughout  the  communities  which  it  affects.  And  there- 
fore we  are  here  for  Foreign  Missions,  in  order  that  we  may 
make  the  ethics  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  Law  of  God,  the  founda- 
tion of  political  security  and  political  progress  in  this  our  beloved 
land.  '  [Loud  applause.] 

Of  course  the  scheming  and  the  corrupt  politicians,  —  of  whom 
there  are  some,  —  to  whom  politics  is  merely  a  game  like  euchre 
or  poker  (I  believe  those  are  the  names),  hate  the  Gospel,  hate 
this  movement,  hate  every  influence  that  makes  the  churches 
stronger ;  but  we  are  heart  and  soul  in  it  and  for  it,  and  we  desire, 
when  we  send  to  China  or  to  Africa,  to  make  the  churches  in  all 
our  own  land  —  in  the  eastern  and  western  and  the  central  por- 
tions of  the  land  —  more  energetic,  more  enthusiastic,  more  con- 
scious of  their  sublime  relations  to  God  and  his  truth,  and  of 
their  sublime  office  in  the  world.  And  so  we  lift  politics,  if  our 
aim  succeeds.  That  is  our  endeavor,  and  by  the  aid  of  God's 
grace  and  providence  we  will  succeed. 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 45 

But  then,  beyond  that,  we  want  to  lift  the  politics  of  the  world. 
As  I  have  said,  the  world  is  in  a  condition  of  change  and  up- 
heaval, but  for  that  very  reason  the  opportunity  is  before  us  to 
build  Human  Society  on  the  earth  to  a  higher  and  nobler  stature, 
to  mould  it  into  finer  lines  of  beauty,  and  to  clothe  it  with  a 
grander  power  than  otherwise  it  could  possess.  What  a  wonder- 
ful thing  it  is  that  Christ  our  Master  is  the  lifter  up  of  peoples, 
as  he  was  the  lifter  up  of  the  paralytic  and  the  blind  when  he  was 
here  upon  the  earth  !  He  does  it  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel. 
Well,  men  say,  that  is  a  very  impalpable  power.  Yes,  it  is  !  Do 
you  know  any  of  the  greatest  forces  in  nature  that  are  not 
impalpable  ?  Light  is  impalpable.  You  see  its  effect,  in  the  spring 
green  and  in  the  autumn  splendor,  in  all  the  beauty  of  the  sunset, 
and  in  all  the  luminous  majesty  of  the  night ;  but  you  never  saw 
the  elemental  essential  force  itself.  Scientists  dispute  to  this  day, 
after  all  their  analysis  and  all  their  speculation,  as  to  what  it  is. 
Electricity  is  impalpable.  You  see  it  pulling  the  cars  along  your 
streets ;  you  see  it  pushing  the  drills  into  the  mountain  tunnel ;  you 
see  it  behind  the  multitudes  of  machineries ;  you  use  it,  perhaps, 
to  send  your  thought  and  message  under  the  sea  to  other  lands, 
talking  with  Constantinople  and  Calcutta,  with  Bombay  and  Hong 
Kong,  almost  without  interval  of  time.  But  you  never  saw  the  force 
itself.     No  man  has  grasped  it.     It  is  imponderable,  impalpable. 

You  do  not  see  the  force  of  gravitation  —  that  mighty  muscle 
which  holds  the  universe  together,  which  rounds  the  dewdrop  and 
sustains  the  constellations  on  their  steady  poise.  If  any  force  in 
the  physical  universe  were  to  be  seen,  that  would  be  the  one.  But 
no  man  ever  saw  it,  though  he  feels  its  impact  upon  himself  at 
every  moment  and  in  every  place.  Life  is  impalpable,  for  which 
this  great  structure  of  the  universe  is  builded  and  held  together. 
Life  in  all  its  realms  and  ranges  of  animate  existence,  for  which 
the  worlds  are  made,  is  impalpable.  No  man  ever  saw  it. 
Thought  is  impalpable  ;  love  is  impalpable ;  the  soul  is  impalpable ; 
every  greatest  force  is  impalpable,  as  is  the  mind  of  God  himself 
from  which  that  force  has  come.  But  it  is  all  the  more  powerful 
because  it  is  impalpable. 

And  so  with  the  Gospel  of  Christ.     Men  say  sometimes,  with 


146  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK. 

Pilate  of  old,  "  What  is  truth  ! "  It  was  not  a  serious  question,  of 
course ;  it  was  the  sarcasm  of  proconsular  arrogance.  Truth,  — 
it  is  a  dream  of  the  mind,  he  implies ;  it  is  a  breath  in  the  air ; 
truth  has  no  power ;  one  rush  of  the  Roman  legionaries  and  it 
vanishes  forever.  Ah,  but  that  truth  at  which  Pilate  sneered  took 
the  mighty  empire  of  which  he  was  a  subordinate  ofificer  and 
crushed  it  at  last,  as  the  mailed  hand  of  the  giant  might  crush  an 
eggshell.  Pilate  was  mistaken.  Men  of  the  world  are  mistaken, 
now,  when  they  say  that  the  Gospel  is  an  ineffective  force,  some- 
thing for  women  and  children,  something  for  sick  people,  some- 
thing for  the  depressed  perhaps,  but  which  for  the  prosperous  and 
powerful  is  nothing  but  breath.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  in- 
visible, it  is  impalpable ;  but  see  how  it  operates,  not  on  individ- 
uals only,  but  on  communities,  wherever  it  goes.  It  honors 
womanhood,  and  makes  woman,  the  former  slave  of  man,  the 
modern  priestess  of  the  household.  It  honors  and  blesses  child- 
hood ;  and  that  promise  at  any  rate  is  fulfilled,  even  in  our  time, 
that  "  a  little  child  shall  lead  them,"  —  the  little  child  concerning 
whose  death  Cicero,  that  humane  and  eloquent  Roman,  said  that 
it  was  really  of  no  consequence,  and  not  to  be  thought  of  after- 
ward. Now  the  little  child  leads  the  household,  leads  legislation, 
controls  senates,  and  constrains  them  to  legislate  for  its  interest 
and  welfare.  It  is  leading  famihes,  churches,  the  race  itself,  for- 
ward, to  nobler  and  holier  thoughts  of  the  future.  It  is  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  which  is  doing  this.  It  checks  cruelties,  it  miti- 
gates the  horrors  of  war  by  sending  the  Red  Cross  to  the  bloody 
battlefields  and  the  tern  navies  of  China  and  Japan,  by  sending 
the  Red  Cross  now  over  the  devastated  hillsides  and  valleys  of 
Armenia.  It  will  stop  war  before  long.  [Applause.]  Yes,  the 
courts  of  arbitration,  which  were  "  the  dream  of  the  devout,"  it 
was  said,  three  or  four  centuries  ago,  when  Henry  the  Fourth  of 
France  and  his  great  minister  advocated  the  plan,  are  now  the 
ever-living  and  widening  aspiration  of  the  statesmen  of  Chris- 
tendom. This  Gospel  of  Christ  touches  despotisms,  and  loosens 
and  disintegrates  them ;  just  as  the  ice-bank  does  not  require  in 
the  springtime  to  be  broken  up  by  drill  and  dynamite,  but  melts 
into  drops  and  ripples  into  rills  before  the  kiss  of  sunshine  in  the 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY   WORK.  1 47 

warmer  air.  That  is  the  wa}^  in  which  the  Gospel  moves  to  its 
sublime  effects,  wheresoever  it  is  established  and  preached  among 
men. 

And  we  want  to  be  in  that  line  of  Divine  operation.  We  want 
to  have  a  part  in  that  great  work.  The  future  is  coming,  moulded 
by  the  Gospel  and  glorified  by  it,  and  in  that  we  would  have  a 
share.  We  would  elevate  the  politics  of  the  nation,  and  the 
politics  of  the  world,  by  this  invisible,  impalpable  power.  We 
would  have  part  in  the  ever-advancing  plan  of  God  in  the  world. 

There  is  a  plan  of  God  concerning  Human  Society,  as  evident 
as  the  stars  in  the  unclouded  sky,  and  moving  forward  steadily 
to  its  consummation.  This  plan  of  God  alone  explains  the 
earlier  theocracy,  and  the  continued  existence  of  the  special 
Jewish  people,  amid  all  the  lightnings  and  avalanches  which  fell 
upon  them  from  outside  nations  in  incessant  assault.  It  is  this 
plan  of  God  which  explains  the  coming  of  the  Master,  in  his 
earthly  infancy,  in  his  heavenly  spirit  and  power,  in  the  fullness 
of  time ;  which  explains  the  subsequent  progress  of  history,  the 
breaking  in  pieces  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  conversion  of  the 
savage  ferocity  of  the  tribes  in  central  Europe  into  the  spirit  of 
the  Christian  commonwealths  which  have  taken  their  place. 

It  is  this  plan  of  God  which  contemplated  this  country ;  which 
plucked  back  the  knowledge  of  this  continent  from  the  mind  of 
Europe,  and  kept  it  reserved  for  five  hundred  years  after  the 
Northmen  had  landed  here,  had  lived  here,  and  had  described 
the  land.  It  is  this  plan  of  God  which  contemplated  the  coloni- 
zation of  this  country  by  the  peculiar  people  who  came  to  possess 
it  j  a  plan  of  God  manifest  in  all  our  subsequent  history,  mani- 
fest in  the  reservation  of  this  great  northwestern  territory  from  the 
sin  and  shame  and  burden  of  Slavery,  at  a  time  when  only  the 
providence  of  God  could  have  brought  that  to  pass,  through 
the  ministry  largely  of  a  New  England  pastor ;  a  plan  of  God 
which  carried  the  empire  out  to  the  Pacific,  when  the  time  for 
tliat  had  come,  and  then  knit  and  united  the  two  vast  hemispheres 
of  this  northern  continent  together,  for  all  time  in  the  future; 
a  plan  of  God  which  is  marching  on  now,  even  more  evidently 
than  ever  before,  as  steamships   come,  and   the   telegraph,  and 


148  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY   WORK. 

printing  presses,  and  the  closer  alliances  of  Christian  nations,  and 
the  increasing  decadence  of  foreign  powers  hostile  to  the  Gospel ; 
which  is  bringing  in  freer  governments,  with  the  open  Bible  trans- 
lated into  three  hundred  and  fifty  languages  of  the  earth.  Even 
as  the  converging  regiments  and  brigades  of  the  army  portend 
the  final  struggle  and  prepare  for  the  victorious  onset,  God  is 
bringing  in  these  forces  from  afar  and  combining  them  for  the 
victory,  which  is  not  far  off.     [Applause.] 

Now  in  this  work  we  would  have  a  part.  Ah,  but  somebody 
says,  "  But  the  Turkish  outrages  do  not  look  as  if  God's  plan  was 
universally  or  supremely  effective.  You  read,  and  you  tell,  of 
men  and  women  murdered  for  their  faith.  Is  that  part  of  the 
plan  of  God?  You  tell  of  the  difficulties  and  dangers  which 
surround  those  who  are  still  on  those  fields  of  struggle  and  sacri- 
fice. Does  that  look  like  the  plan  of  God?"  My  friends,  as 
I  heard  to-day  and  yesterday  those  terrific  and  true  statements 
of  what  has  been  endured,  and  what  may  be  still  anticipated, 
perhaps,  in  those  lands,  that  great  word  of  Paul  came  to  my 
thought,  a  short  word,  but  a  great  one  :  "  The  God  of  patience." 

A  remarkable  word  to  come  from  that  energetic,  indomitable, 
impassioned  apostle  !  We  think  of  God  as  a  God  of  infinite 
power ;  and  so  he  is,  swinging  the  worlds  on  the  word  of  his 
power.  We  think  of  him  as  a  God  of  immaculate  holiness  ;  and 
so  he  is  —  blessed  be  his  Name  !  as  of  an  infinite  authority,  and  as 
having  the  eternal  years.  We  do  not  always  think  of  him  as  a 
God  of  patience.  Patience  we  attribute  to  those  who  are  im- 
perfect in  vigor ;  who  are  unfortunate  in  circumstances  ;  who  are 
manacled  by  disease  ;  fettered  behind  prison  bars ;  unable  to  work 
their  own  way  and  will  without  aid  from  others,  and  only  amid 
constant  discouragements.  To  hear  that  God  is  "  a  God  of 
patience  "  sounds  to  us,  possibly,  like  something  derogatory  to  his 
glory.  Nay,  verily ;  but  because  he  is  a  God  of  power,  he  is  a 
God  of  patience  ;  because  he  has  eternal  wisdom,  and  the  eternal 
years,  he  can  afford  to  let  things  go  for  a  time  unchecked,  which 
are  to  come  in  the  end  to  a  more  disastrous  overthrow.  Nature 
herself  testifies  to  that  patience  of  God.  The  interval  between 
the  sowing  of  the  seed  and  the  gathering  of  the  harvest,  between 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 49 

the  tiny  shoot  and  the  majestic  stalk  swaying  in  the  air  with  its 
fragrant  bloom,  between  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  slow- 
growing  aloe  and  its  wonderful  consummation  twenty  or  thirty 
or  fifty,  or  even  a  hundred  years  afterwards,  —  this  testifies  to  his 
patience.  His  patience  is  shown  in  his  tolerance  of  evil  forces. 
Men  say,  "  Sweep  them  out,  shut  them  up,  destroy  them  ! "  God 
waits,  and  the  evil  force  comes  at  last  to  its  end  under  his 
patience.  He  was  patient  when  Nero  burned  the  Roman  Chris- 
tians. He  was  patient  when  Diocletian  and  Galerius  burned 
them  by  the  churchful  at  a  time.  Yes,  he  is  a  God  of  patience ; 
but  in  the  end  there  came  that  overthrow  of  the  empire,  which, 
as  one  of  the  ancient  fathers  said,  was  Hke  the  crash  of  a  falling  world. 

He  was  patient  when  the  kings  of  France,  the  Grand  Monarque 
and  those  who  followed  him,  were  revelling  in  the  luxurious 
licentiousness  of  the  superb  palace,  and  in  the  terrible  splendor 
of  the  battlefield,  while  the  people  whom  they  had  been  set 
to  govern  were  eating  grass,  and  eating  earth,  and  gnawing  the 
bones  with  decayed  flesh  on  them  of  animals  that  had  been 
slaughtered  or  had  died.  But  there  came  a  time  when  the  God 
of  patience,  having  endured  these  things  while  his  purpose  con- 
tinued, let  loose  the  forces  which  destroyed  that  monarchy; 
destroyed  it,  however,  only  to  convert  the  nation  iato  the  noble, 
beautiful,  chivalrous,  and  prophesying  republic  of  the  present 
time.  [Applause.]  And  so  he  has  been  patient,  not  blazing 
forth  in  bursts  of  lightning,  not  uttering  his  voice  in  thunder 
tones,  while  these  outrages  have  been  going  on  in  Armenia.  But, 
with  all  his  patience,  you  watch  the  decadence  of  the  Turkish 
empire  from  the  day  of  Nikopolis  and  of  Bajazet  to  this  hour. 
Watch  it  from  the  time  of  the  beleaguered  Vienna  to  our  day. 
See  its  decadence  in  our  own  time ;  and  you  may  know  that  if 
such  outrages  continue  and  are  multipUed,  the  empire  shall  go 
down  beneath  the  wheels  of  that  chariot  of  the  Messiah  which 
never  goes  backward,  but  always  forward,  to  the  destruction  of 
evil  and  the  glory  of  God  on  earth.     [Applause.] 

Yes,  it  is  the  plan  of  God  in  history  which  we  are  trying  in  our 
feeble  way,  as  he  permits  and  honors  us  by  permitting  us,  to  aid 
in  its  mighty  march  toward  the  full  consummation.     That  con- 


150  INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY   WORK. 

summation  is  coming  which  the  prophets  saw,  and  for  which 
Christ  died ;  that  consummation  for  which  so  many  heroic  souls 
have  given  life  itself.  There  is  to  be  one  language  on  the  earth, 
not  Volapiik,  but  the  language  of  Canaan,  with  Father,  Son, 
Holy  Ghost,  Atonement,  Regeneration,  and  the  Immortal  Heaven 
included  in  it.  There  is  to  be  a  Christian  socialism  in  the  world 
—  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity ;  not  brought  about  by  human 
artifice  or  passion,  but  developed  in  the  onworking  of  God's  grace 
and  providence  until  the  whole  earth  rejoices  in  it.  We  would 
have  part  in  that  great  work,  and  so  a  part  in  the  final  victory ; 
and  we  will  not  be  compelled  on  high,  when  the  shout  of  triumph 
rings  through  Heaven,  to  say,  "  I  have  no  part  in  the  paean,  for  I 
had  no  part  in  the  pain  !  I  have  no  part  in  the  victory,  for  I  had 
no  part  in  the  struggle." 

Then  we  want,  as  we  are  gathered  here,  to  stand  in  spiritual 
succession  with  the  noblest  and  most  heroic  of  the  world  who 
have  gone  before  us,  or  who  are  with  us  now.  The  message  of 
Divine  grace  in  the  Gospel  is  not  self-diffusive,  any  more  than  is 
the  knowledge  of  science,  or  of  letters,  or  of  any  art.  It  is  not 
blazoned  by  God  on  the  sky.  He  sets  the  cross  in  the  southern 
heavens,  with  its  lines  of  splendor,  but  he  writes  no  illuminating 
Unas  underneath  to  testify  what  it  means. 

This  Gospel  of  Christ  is  not  carried  forward  by  proclamation  of 
angels ;  it  is  given  to  men  to  distribute  on  the  earth ;  to  noble 
men,  and  noble  women,  who  are  willing  to  give  power  and  life  for 
this  Divine  mission.  It  has  been  so  from  the  beginning,  when 
they  went  forth  preaching  the  word  in  the  face  of  saber  and  flame, 
of  the  dungeon  and  the  arena.  It  was  so  in  the  middle  ages ;  it 
has  been  so  in  every  day  since.  It  has  been  the  same  spirit, 
always,  of  heroic  consecration  and  self-sacrifice,  which  has  given 
this  furtherance  to  the  Gospel,  in  Felicitas,  in  Perpetua,  in  Blandina 
the  slave  girl,  who,  as  Renan  says,  conquered  the  Roman  empire 
for  Christ.  It  was  so  in  Holland,  to  which  reference  was  made 
yesterday,  when,  as  we  read  on  the  brilliant  pages  of  Motley,  a 
Protestant  congregation,  in  Brussels  (I  think),*  was  seized  in 
part,  with  some  of   its  officers,  and  burned   alive  in  the  public?' 

*  Breda?    See  "  Dutch  Republic,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  492-3. 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK.  151 

square,  while  the  pastor  and  the  others  who  remained  met  in  an 
upper  room  overlooking  that  square  and  continued  their  worship, 
reading  the  scripture  by  the  light  which  flamed  from  their 
burning  brethren  at  the  stake  !  That  is  the  temper  which  nothing 
ever  conquers.  That  is  the  temper  which  God  would  cherish  and 
nourish  in  his  Church.  That  is  the  temper  which  has  been  so 
illustriously  displayed  in  these  recent  times,  in  front  of  Turkish 
saber  and  Turkish  dungeon,  in  the  midst  of  massacre,  in  that 
glory  of  martyrdom  which  has  been  the  same  as  in  the  earlier 
time.  [Applause.]  We  are  not  called  to  suffer  martyrdom  ;  but 
we  are  called  —  and  we  delight  to  answer  the  call  —  to  hold  up 
the  hands,  and  to  strengthen  and  stimulate  the  hearts,  of  these 
our  brothers  and  sisters  who  are  in  the  midst  of  a  peril  sometimes 
the  more  impressive  because  unknown  in  its  nature  or  its  extent, 
and  to  walk  with  them  through  the  furnace,  and  in  the  valley  of 
the  shadow.  We  go  back  to  the  earlier  times,  and  we  come  on  to 
the  middle  ages,  and  think  of  Boniface  and  Adalbert,  Columba, 
and  Otto  of  Stettin,  and  all  the  others,  and  we  say,  each  one, 
"  My  soul  be  with  the  saints  !  My  soul  be  with  the  heroes  and  the 
martyrs,  who  have  wrought  for  God  in  the  victories  of  faith,  through 
the  triumph  of  perfect  confidence  in  him,  and  of  the  perfect  ulti- 
mate success  of  his  cause  on  the  earth." 

Surely  it  is  not  an  ignoble  impulse  that  brings  us  together  !  It 
is  a  generous  and  magnificent  impulse  of  the  heart  to  work  the 
work  of  God  on  earth,  and  to  join  in  spirit  with  these  heroic  ones 
who  have  gone  before.  We  do  not  care  especially  for  any  tactual 
succession.  We  do  not  care  to  have  prelatical  hands  laid  on  our 
heads.  It  would  do  no  harm,  very  likely,  but  we  have  never  been 
able  to  find  out  that  it  would  do  any  particular  good.  [Laughter.] 
We  do  not  care  for  similarity  of  rites  and  ordinances,  but  we 
must  be  in  spiritual  succession  with  these  men  and  these  women 
who  have  suffered  and  sacrificed,  and  died  victoriously,  in  the 
Divine  cause  on  earth.  Therefore  we  come  together,  and  there- 
fore we  are  to  go  hence  to  spread  the  contagion  of  this  spiritual 
impulse  and  power  in  all  our  churches,  and  wherever  we  touch 
the  land. 

Above  all,  we  would  be  in  sympathy  with  the  Lord  himself; 


152 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK. 


that  Divine  Person  who  came  into  the  earth  for  our  salvation,  who 
tarried  on  it  for  our  salvation,  who  died  on  it  for  our  salvation, 
and  who  rose  ascending  and  glorified  into  the  heavens  !  If  he 
had  been  merely  a  pure  and  lovely  man  who  taught  things  clearly, 
lived  a  modest  and  holy  life,  died  without  moan  at  the  hands  of 
violence,  and  was  finally  buried  by  his  friends,  there  would  be  no 
impulse  of  this  sort.  If  he  had  been  simply  a  superior  person, 
coming  into  the  world  from  outside  spheres,  initiating  a  cause 
here,  and  then  leaving  it  to  go  on  by  itself,  there  would  be  no 
such  mighty  impulse  for  us.  But  as  we  see  him  in  the  scripture, 
and  see  him  in  history,  and  see  him  in  experience,  —  the  Divine 
King,  coming  into  the  earth  that  he  might  save  his  enemies  and 
lift  them  unto  God ;  as  we  see  him  glorified  on  high  in  the  splendor 
of  his  mediatorial  throne, —  the  impulse  to  serve  him  becomes  a 
boundless,  supreme  passion  of  the  heart.  We  would  give  every- 
thing to   him. 

Sometimes  there  comes  before  every  Christian  disciple,  I 
undoubtingly  believe,  the  vision  of  that  pallid  and  majestic 
face,  with  the  sweat  drops  of  Gethsemane  on  it  and  the  thorn 
crown  of  Calvary,  but  now  with  a  diadem  for  every  thorn-mark  on 
that  majestic  brow,  worshiped  of  angels,  not  remembering  the 
earth  only,  but  loving  it  and  lifting  it  to  himself,  sending  his 
spirits,  it  may  be,  of  light  and  power,  sending  surely  his  Spirit  of 
love  and  grace  and  regeneration  to  carry  forward  his  work  on 
earth,  and  waiting  until  the  work  be  accomplished,  till  he  shall  see 
of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied  !  And  whensoever 
that  vision  comes,  —  it  may  be  in  the  hour  of  high  meditation,  it 
may  be  in  the  hour  of  noble  resolve,  it  may  be  in  the  hour  of 
sorrow  which  finds  no  solace  but  in  him,  for  "  the  sacrament  of 
the  bleeding  heart "  is  often  the  best  preparation  for  this  vision 
of  the  Lord,  —  whensoever  it  comes,  then  there  is  nothing  too 
great  to  be  done,  nothing  too  precious  to  be  given,  for  him  who 
hath  given  life  itself  for  us.  We  measure  what  he  did  for  us  by 
the  shadows  over  Calvary,  and  we  say,  "O  Lord,  Brothet  and 
Friend,  Redeemer  and  King  !  the  wise  men  brought  to  thee  in 
thy  babyhood  jewels  and  spices,  frankincense,  gold,  and  myrrh. 
Show  me  what  I  can  give,  to  add  luster  to  thy  crown,  to  rejoice  thy 
heart  on  high,  and  everything  in  me  and  of  mine  shall  be  a  joyful 


INCENTIVES    TO  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 53 

sacrifice  to  thee."  That  was  the  spirit  which  conquered  the 
ancient  savage  and  haughty  empire  —  that  power  of  love  for  Christ, 
which  all  its  enemies  could  not  subdue,  any  more  than  lances  can 
pierce  and  break  the  sunshine  on  earth.  That  has  been  the 
power  in  all  missionary  development  since.  That  is  the  power  in 
the  missionary  work  to-day  ;  the  power  which  upholds  and  carries 
forward  those  who  live  and  labor  in  distant  lands,  through  all 
the  scenes  of  peril  and  of  blood. 

So  it  is  that  we  have  come  together.  We  would  lift  the  politics 
of  our  own  nation,  in  the  time  to  come.  We  would  lift  the  politics 
of  the  world,  and  advance  human  welfare.  We  would  work  the 
work  of  God,  keeping  step  with  Omnipotence,  not  fretting  or 
worrying  when  discouragements  come,  but  believing  in  God,  be- 
lieving in  Christ,  and  as  sure  as  of  our  own  existence  that  in  the 
end  glory  and  peace  are  to  be  the  issues.  We  would  walk  in  the 
bright  and  magnificent  succession  of  those  heroic  souls  who  have 
given  luster  to  history  on  earth,  and  who  give  beauty  to  the 
history  of  heaven  itself ;  and  we  would  work,  most  of  all,  in  loyal 
and  consecrated  allegiance  to  Him  who  gave  himself  that  we 
might  live  forevermore  !  No  matter  for  the  political  campaign. 
No  matter  for  the  unrest  of  the  nations.  We  are  here  for  great 
purposes,  legitimately  here,  and  when  we  go  hence  may  it  be  to 
carry  a  blessing  from  this  assembly  into  all  our  churches,  into  all 
our  circles,  into  all  our  homes,  that  will  be  for  the  Divine  glory 
and  for  human  welfare  ! 

And  let  us  not  forget  that  life  is  brief ;  that  time  hurries  ;  that 
the  hour  is  critical ;  and  that  what  we  do  to  make  our  memories  of 
the  earth  beautiful  in  heaven,  and  heaven  itself  more  populous 
forever,  must  be  done  with  noble  service,  with  generosity,  with 
sacrifice,  with  love  and  with  prayer,  and  done  at  once  J  [Loud 
and  continued  applause.] 


IX. 

founDation  Crutl^jJ  of  ametican 

ADDRESS  AT  THE  ANNUAL  MEETING  AT  NEW  HAVEN,  1897. 


FOUNDATION  TRUTHS  OF  AMERICAN 
MISSIONS. 


Mr.  President,  Mr.  Vice-President,  Members  of  the  Board, 
Christian  Friends :  —  My  heart  was  very  full  when  I  stood,  ten 
years  ago  this  evening,  at  this  same  hour,  on  the  platform  of  the 
American  Board  at  its  meeting  in  Springfield,  and  said  that  I 
would  take  into  careful  and  prayerful  consideration  the  action  of 
the  Board  in  electing  me  to  be  its  President,  in  spite  of  my 
reluctance  and  against  my  protest.  My  heart  is  very  full  to-night, 
as  I  stand  at  the  end  of  these  years,  and  look  into  the  faces  of 
the  members  of  the  Board  and  of  this  great  congregation.  Breth- 
ren and  friends,  you  have  done  me  honor  overmuch  !  I  have 
tried  to  be  faithful  and  patient,  kind  in  feeling  and  fair  in  action 
toward  every  member  of  the  Board,  and  I  have  tried  to  do  faith- 
fully, day  by  day,  what  it  came  to  me  to  do,  on  behalf  of  its 
interests ;  and  that  is  all  that  I  can  claim.  Whatever  of  success 
has  attended  the  counsels  and  the  work  of  the  Board  while  I  have 
held  the  office  of  President  is  due  to  the  Divine  Master,  and  not 
to  me  ;  to  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  not  to  any  counsel  or  judgment 
of  my  own.  But  as  I  look  back  upon  these  years,  which  in  some 
respects  have  certainly  been  eventful  years,  it  is  with  profound 
gratitude  to  God,  and  with  profound  gratitude  to  you.  I  rejoice 
to  remember  that  my  relations  in  all  this  time  with  all  the  officers 
of  the  Board,  and  with  its  committees,  have  been  most  affection- 
ate and  confidential;  that  we  have  considered  the  matters  pre- 
sented to  us  in  a  temper  of  perfect  impartiality,  though  with  the 


158        FOUNDATION   TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

most  earnest  desire  to  find  and  to  do  the  best  thing.  I  rejoice  to 
remember  that  my  relations  with  my  dear  friend  and  brother,  the 
Vice-President,  have  become  only  closer  and  more  intimate  as 
the  years  have  gone  on ;  that  our  minds  have  been  in  perfect 
accord  on  all  principal  questions  which  have  arisen,  that  our 
hearts  have  beat  in  perfect  sympathy  in  all  the  action  which  we 
have  been  called  to  take,  and  that  they  have  only  come  closer 
and  closer  together  as  we  have  conferred  and  acted  with  each 
other.  I  rejoice  to  look  back  upon  these  years  of  uninterrupted 
harmony  and  fellowship,  and  I  pray  that  in  the  world  to  come  his 
mansion  and  mine  may  not  be  far  apart ! 

It  is  a  great  relief  to  me  to  stand  before  you  to-night  without 
the  responsibilities  of  the  presidency  upon  me,  without  the  solic- 
itudes and  the  forthcoming  duties  which  I  have  hitherto  had  to 
face  when,  during  these  last  ten  years,  I  have  stood  face  to  face 
with  an  assembly  like  this,  on  such  an  occasion.  I  should  have 
been  most  heartily  glad  to  reassume  these  duties  and  these  solic- 
itudes, if  such  had  been  your  wish,  if  I  felt  that  I  had  strength 
and  vigor  for  the  work,  strength  and  vigor  equal  to  those  which  I 
had  five  or  eight  years  ago ;  but  it  is  a  joy  to  me  that  you  have 
found  another,  my  dear  and  honored  friend  and  brother  for  many 
years,  who  will  take  up  this  work  and  carry  it  forward,  in  the 
spirit,  as  he  has  suggested,  of  loyalty  to  the  traditions  of  this 
American  Board  and  with  an  earnestness  and  a  strength  which  I 
now  certainly  could  not  give  to  the  same  work.  So  I  rejoice  to 
be  here  this  evening,  and  to  say  what  I  have  to  say. 

More  than  fifty  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  young  pastor  in 
Brooklyn,  I  was  invited  to  join  and  did  join  a  comparatively  small 
society  of  fifteen  or  twenty  clergymen,  associated  in  that  city 
under  the  name,  if  I  remember  aright,  of  the  Clerical  Union.  It 
was  a  very  pleasant  society.  I  enjoyed  the  meetings  very  much, 
though  there  were  not  more  than  eight  or  ten  usually  present  at 
them.  The  president  for  the  first  year  of  my  membership  was  my 
honored  friend,  Dr.  Maurice  W.  Dwight,  a  relative  of  the  distin- 
guished President  of  Yale  University,  who  was  then  pastor  of  the 
First  Dutch  Church  in  Brooklyn,  and  who  had  been  kind  enough 


FOUNDATION   TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        I  59 

to  take  part  in  the  services  of  my  installation.  At  the  end  of  the 
year  he  retired,  according  to  the  rule,  and  Dr.  Cox  was  elected 
in  his  place.  I  do  not  think  there  were  more  than  seven  or  eight 
of  the  members  present  when  Dr.  Cox  arose — I  can  almost  see 
him  now  in  his  stately  dignity,  in  his  splendid  aspect,  with  the 
nimbus  of  white  hair  around  his  head  —  and  said,  Ufting  himself, 
according  to  his  custom,  as  he  said  it,  "  I  wish,  before  pronounc- 
ing my  inaugural  address,  to  listen  to  the  exaugural  discourse  of 
Dr.  Dwight."  [Laughter.]  The  word  was  a  new  one  to  me  at 
that  time.  Perhaps  it  seemed  larger  and  more  resonant  than  it 
would  have  done  if  there  had  been  a  hundred  people  there ;  but 
for  eight  or  ten  persons  it  seemed  rather  a  waste  of  articulation. 
[Laughter.]  However,  I  have  always  remembered  it ;  and  what 
I  say  this  evening  is  to  be  regarded  as  what  Dr.  Cox  would  have 
styled  ray  "  exaugural  address." 

Dear  brethren  and  friends,  I  have  certainly  no  fresh  and  large 
philosophy  of  missions  to  present.  I  have  simply  certain  car- 
dinal convictions,  which  were  in  my  mind  when  I  stood  on  the 
platform  at  Springfield,  and  when  afterward  I  accepted  the  office 
to  which  your  kind  confidence  had  called  me,  which  have  been 
more  and  more  vitally  imbedded  in  my  mind  from  that  hour  to 
this,  and  by  which  all  my  thought  and  action  concerning  foreign 
missions  have  been  moulded  and  sustained ;  and  these  I  shall  be 
glad  to  recall  to  you,  in  a  few  rapid  words,  not  as  anything  new 
or  anything  startling,  but  as  giving  incentive,  I  think,  and  motive 
and  the  law  of  action,  to  those  in  this  country  who  are  interested 
in  foreign  missions. 

The  first  of  them  is  that  simple  yet  ever  stupendous  conviction 
that  God  has  a  plan  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has  a  purpose 
for  mankind  ;  the  purpose  to  bring  mankind  into  subjection,  in  all 
its  parts,  in  all  its  reach,  to  the  Divine  law  of  righteousness  and 
truth,  to  endow  mankind  with  the  treasures  of  Divine  wisdom 
and  grace.  It  seems  to  me  impossible  for  any  intelligent  and 
reverent  thinker  to  doubt  concerning  this.  Of  course  the  Bible 
is  full  of  it  from  end  to  end.  It  speaks  in  every  song  and  every 
story.    It  interprets  narrative  and  history.     It  gives  the  criterion 


l60       FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

of  judgment  for  the  character  and  the  career  of  the  men  whom  the 
Bible  presents.  According  as  they  have  fallen  in  with  this  Divine 
plan,  and  have  furthered  it  by  their  endeavors  and  by  their  life, 
they  are  noble ;  according  as  they  have  opposed  it,  or  withdrawn 
from  cooperation  with  it,  they  are  mean  and  despised.  It  is  in  all 
the  ritual,  in  all  the  offices  of  the  ancient  dispensation.  It  is  in 
all  the  prophecies,  pointing  on  continually  to  the  more  and  more 
glowing  skies  from  which  Christ  is  to  come  in  the  advent,  and 
into  which  he  is  afterward  to  arise,  conqueror  of  death.  It  is  this 
vital,  undecaying  idea  of  the  Divine  purpose  to  bring  mankind 
to  the  knowledge  and  the  holiness  of  God,  which  is  the  vital  sub- 
stance of  the  Scripture ;  which  prepares  us  for  the  advent  and 
for  the  miracle,  for  the  Divine  instruction  and  for  the  Cross 
itself,  and  then  for  the  illustrious  and  triumphant  ascension  which 
follows  the  Cross.  It  is  this  which  makes  Pentecost  divinely 
natural,  if  we  may  say  so,  and  prophetic  of  all  that  is  to  come 
after  in  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  this  which  reverber- 
ates in  the  great  arguments  of  the  Epistles,  and  which  comes  out, 
as  in  ruby  and  jasper  and  amethyst  and  chrysolite,  in  the  glorious 
imagery  of  the  Apocalypse.  That  the  armies  arrayed  in  white 
are  to  subdue  the  inveterate  and  fierce  and  bloody  evils  of  the 
world,  that  is  the  burden  of  that  closing  book.  That  is  the 
burden  really,  from  first  to  last,  of  all  the  Scripture ;  and  no  man 
can  read  that  Scripture  carefully  and  thoroughly  without  having 
this  deeply  and  permanently  impressed  upon  his  mind.  What- 
ever particular  criticisms  may  be  made  concerning  writings  or 
portions  of  writings  in  the  Scriptures,  as  to  their  authority,  as  to 
their  proper  place  in  the  sacred  canon,  as  to  the  authorship  of 
them,  as  to  the  time  at  which  they  were  written,  these  criticisms 
or  critical  inquiries  no  more  touch  this  substance  of  the  Scripture 
than  a  minute  botanical  analysis  touches  the  splendor  of  gardens 
or  the  grandeur  of  forests,  or  than  the  deep-sea  soundings  efface 
the  blue  from  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  or  stay  the  swing  of  its 
tremendous  tides.     [Applause.] 

But  even  aside  from  the  Scripture  it  does  seem  to  me  impossi- 
ble for  any  intelligent  reader  of  the  manifold  consenting  records  of 


FOUNDATION   TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        l6l 

the  past  to  doubt  that  God  has  this  plan  in  human  history,  and  is 
steadily  carrying  it  forward.  From  the  earlier  and  the  later 
Hebrew  annals,  from  the  histories  of  Assyria  and  Egypt  and 
Greece  and  Rome,  steadily  we  trace  this  plan  unfolding ;  unfold- 
ing through  the  fire  and  blood  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  unfolding  in 
the  discovery  of  this  continent  at  a  time  when,  after  it  had  been 
for  hundreds  of  years  plucked  back  from  the  knowledge  of 
Europe,  it  was  brought  to  light,  just  when  the  movable  type  was  in 
the  hands  of  man  and  the  Christian  Reformation  was  drawing 
near.  Of  course  there  have  been  setbacks,  apparently,  in  this 
history  of  the  progress  of  the  plan  of  God  concerning  mankind, 
and  skeptics  make  a  great  deal  of  those ;  but  they  are  only 
natural.  This  is  a  prodigious  and  unreturning  campaign ;  it  is 
not  a  series  of  skirmishes  unrelated  to  each  other,  however 
brilliant  or  however  disastrous ;  and  the  evil  which  men  see  is 
only  connected  as  an  occasion  with  the  vaster  development  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  President  Eaton,  I  think  it 
was,  the  other  day  spoke  of  the  streets  of  New  York.  I  don't 
wonder  that  he  did.     [Laughter.] 

As  I  rode  over  them  on  Tuesday,  coming  to  the  train,  seeing 
the  streets  torn  up,  the  water  pipes  burst,  large  areas  flooded  with 
the  water,  and  the  air  filled  with  the  intolerable  gases,  I  thought 
that  any  one  passing  through  New  York  for  the  first  time  might 
naturally  feel  that  the  rocky  backbone  of  the  city  was  being 
pierced  and  crushed,  and  the  entire  city  was  to  sink  into  the 
abyss;  but  it  is  all  for  an  ampler  development,  for  an  ampler 
equipment,  that  men  may  ride,  and  women,  more  rapidly  and 
safely  over  those  very  streets,  and  that  the  future  population  of 
the  city  may  have  a  finer  endowment  of  opportunity  and  privi- 
lege than  the  present  has.  Men  say  sometimes  that  war  comes 
in  to  interrupt  the  progress  of  God's  Kingdom.  Sometimes  it 
does.  A  war  of  revenge  is  always  demoralizing ;  a  war  of  ambi- 
tion is  equally  so ;  a  war  of  self-defense,  for  the  welfare  and 
honor  of  a  country,  is  not.  I  see,  walking  these  streets  of  New 
Haven,  the  blood-red  crimson  on  the  foliage,  as  well  as  the  shin- 
ing gold ;  and  neither  is  more  indicative  of  decay  than  the  other, 


I  62        FOUNDATION   TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

while  both  are  simply  prophetic  of  that  verdurous  spring  which  is 
by  and  by  to  come,  clothing  the  lawns  with  beauty  and  the  trees 
with  the  wealth  of  another  year's  foliage.  So  war  is  sometimes 
the  instrument  of  God  for  the  furtherance  of  his  Kingdom  in  the 
world;  and  we  are  not  to  complain,  certainly  not  to  hesitate, 
certainly  not  to  despond,  when  convulsions  appear  among  the 
nations  which  seem  strange  in  connection  with  this  mighty  pur- 
pose of  the  Most  High.  He  is  working  on  to  his  result;  and 
whensoever  the  conviction  of  that,  the  vital  and  energetic  appre- 
hension of  that,  enters  into  the  mind  of  the  Church,  into  your 
minds  and  mine,  then  the  enthusiasm  for  missions  is  rekindled  in 
us,  then  we  feel  the  magnificence  of  the  privilege  of  working 
with  God,  of  keeping  step  with  Omnipotence  in  the  march  toward 
the  future ;  then  the  old  enthusiasm,  from  the  time  of  early 
martyrdoms,  from  the  time  of  the  early  missions,  will  be  reenthroned 
in  our  hearts,  and  we  shall  see  and  feel  the  infinite  privilege  of 
men,  above  the  privilege  of  angels,  of  working  on  the  earth  which 
Christ  consecrated  with  his  blood,  for  the  glory  of  the  Kingdom 
of  that  same  Christ  coming  in  his  power.     [Applause.] 

And  then  the  second  conviction,  radical  in  my  mind  for  all 
these  years,  and  now,  is  that  the  instrument  by  which  this  work 
is  to  be  accomplished  is  the  old  Gospel,  the  gospel  of  life  and 
salvation,  the  gospel  of  truth  and  invitation  and  promise,  and  of 
tremendous  forewarning.  You  have  seen,  perhaps  —  I  am  sure 
many  of  you  have  —  a  very  suggestive,  striking,  profound  essay, 
published  not  long  since  in  one  of  the  magazines,  from  the  pen 
of  Captain  Mahan.  I  think  that  is  his  title  —  "  Captain  Mahan." 
If  thought-power  and  the  power  of  lucid  and  energetic  expres- 
sion were  the  criteria  of  rank  in  the  navy,  he  would  be  high 
Admiral.  In  this  article  he  speaks  of  the  general  outward  im- 
pulse among  all  the  greater  nations  except  our  own,  shown  in 
their  colonizations,  shown  in  their  efforts  to  gain  territorial  do- 
minion in  other  lands ;  and  he  speaks  of  the  coming  together  of 
the  Orient  and  the  Occident  on  the  basis  of  common  ideas  of 
material  advantage,  without  the  sympathy,  the  corresponding 
sympathy,  in  spiritual  ideas.     And  here  he  finds  a  danger  —  a 


FOUNDATION    TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        1 63 

danger  menacing  our  civilization ;  for,  as  he  says  emphatically, 
the  civilization  of  modern  Europe  has  grown  up  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Cross,  and  everything  that  is  best  in  it  still 
breathes  the  spirit  of  the  Crucified ;  and  there  is  peril  in  bringing 
together  the  East  and  the  West  on  the  basis  of  common  material 
advantage,  without  this  correspondence  in  spiritual  ideas.  Then 
he  adds,  justly  and  profoundly,  that  if  this  correspondence  in 
spiritual  ideas  is  to  be  attained  it  must  be  not  by  a  process  of 
growth,  but  by  a  process  of  conversion.  You  may  remember  in 
one  of  the  letters  of  Matthew  Arnold,  written,  I  think,  to  Sir 
Duff  Green  (I  am  not  sure),  he  speaks  of  the  fact  that  the  basis 
of  things  in  Europe  generally,  and  especially  in  England,  has 
been  for  ever  so  long  a  belief  in  supernatural  Christianity.  That 
belief,  he  says,  is  certainly  going ;  but  he  has  no  other  basis  what- 
ever to  present  for  the  coming  civilization.  That  basis  of  belief 
in  supernatural  Christianity  was  around  him,  was  beneath  him, 
was  in  the  air  he  breathed,  was  in  the  faces  and  hearts  of  the 
friends  he  met,  when  he  wrote  those  words ;  and  if  it  be  true,  as 
he  also  said,  that  the  transformation  of  the  individual  is  the  in- 
dispensable condition  of  the  transformation  of  the  community,  of 
the  nation  or  of  the  race,  then  there  was  no  power  in  the  England 
of  that  day,  as  there  is  none  in  the  England  of  this  day,  to  take 
the  place  of  supernatural  Christianity  in  working  out  that  trans- 
formation. 

With  its  stupendous  and  unparalleled  truths,  with  its  transcendent 
facts,  with  its  invitations  and  promises  that  pass  beyond  the  sweep 
of  stars,  with  its  gracious  manifestation  of  God  in  tenderness  as 
well  as  might  —  the  tenderness  of  his  welcoming  smile,  as  well  as 
the  might  of  his  stupendous  miracle  —  in  all  this  discovery  of  the 
world  supernatural  with  which,  by  the  very  constitution  of  our 
being,  we  are  allied,  with  the  openings  of  the  future,  wherein 
destinies  are  to  differ  according  to  character,  Christianity,  the 
supernatural,  reaches  the  individual  heart  to  grasp  it  and  to  trans- 
form it,  and  reaches  through  that  the  circles  which  are  affected 
by  it,  that  it  may  transform  at  last  the  world.  And  there  is  no 
other  power  —  none  known  to  history,  none  conceivable  by  man  — 


164       FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

that  can  take  the  place  of  this  old  Gospel,  which  the  earliest  dis- 
ciples heard,  received,  and  preached,  which  has  been  transmitted 
unto  us,  which  our  fathers  loved  and  honored,  in  which  was  the 
impulse  to  this  great  missionary  organization,  and  which  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  missionaries  sent  out  by  it  to  carry  to  all  the  dark- 
ened world.  My  dear  friends,  let  this  conviction  root  itself 
deeply  in  our  hearts,  as  a  vital,  determinate  conviction,  which 
nothing  can  shake,  that  the  power  to  transform  the  world  is  in  the 
New  Testament  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !     [Applause.] 

And  then  the  third  conviction  is  this  :  —  that  it  is  given  to  the 
English-speaking  peoples  of  the  world,  and  in  a  certain  preemi- 
nent sense  to  the  American  people,  to  proclaim  this  gospel  of 
righteousness  and  love,  and  of  spiritual  transformation,  to  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  Every  time  this  thought  has  come  before 
me  it  has  grasped  me  with  a  more  prodigious  power :  this 
nation,  the  great  minister  of  God  for  doing  this,  His  transcendent 
work,  in  these  tremendous  times  !  It  is  shown  to  be  so  by  its 
very  geographical  position.  Poised  on  the  crest  of  the  globe, 
with  the  two  great  oceans  of  the  world  on  either  hand,  with  its 
13,000  miles  of  ocean  coast- line  inviting  commerce  from  abroad, 
stimulating  commerce  in  its  exit ;  with  its  prodigious  wealth,  so 
rapidly  accumulating  from  the  mine,  from  the  prairie,  from  the 
meadow,  from  the  orchard,  from  the  orange  grove,  from  the  sugar 
plantation,  from  the  wheat  field,  and  the  cornfield,  and  the  cotton 
field,  from  the  silver  and  the  gold  in  the  mines,  from  the  great 
deposits  of  coal  and  iron  and  copper,  from  the  great  riches 
scattered  over  the  surface,  where  men  may  scoop  up  fortunes  in 
a  forenoon,  this  nation,  becoming  rapidly  one  of  the  wealthiest  of 
the  world,  perhaps  the  very  wealthiest  at  this  hour,  is  placed  here, 
in  this  extraordinary  geographical  position,  that  it  may  send  out 
its  commerce,  as  it  does,  around  the  earth,  searching  every  land 
with  the  enterprises  of  that  commerce,  carrying  American  manu- 
factures into  China  and  Japan  and  India  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  all  over  the  earth.  Then  think  of  its  composite  population, 
allying  it  with  all  peoples  of  the  world  !  16,000,000  of  immi- 
grants in  seventy  years  !     Let  that  idea  be  fully  grasped  —  each 


FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        165 

of  these  persons  and  households  >¥ith  lelations  running  back  to 
the  different  and  distant  lands  from  which  they  have  come. 
Think  of  this  nation  as  recognized  in  all  the  earth  foremost  in 
demanding  and  promoting  popular  liberty  and  enterprise,  in  edu- 
cation, in  government  and  politics,  in  social  life,  and  in  all  the 
departments  of  enterprise.  Think  of  it  as  having  a  past  strangely 
significant  behind  it,  as  well  as  this  out-reaching  present  around  it 
now  !  the  only  principal  nation  in  the  world,  remember,  that  was 
founded  as  a  missionary  nation,  that  has  kept  the  temper  of 
the  missionary  spirit  from  the  beginning  until  now.  The  fathers 
came  to  this  continent,  then  a  wilderness,  as  Governor  Bradford 
said,  in  the  great  hope,  in  the  intense  zeal,  by  coming  here  to 
extend  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  in  these  remote  ends  of  the  earth ; 
and  you  remember  the  old  seal  of  the  Massachusetts  colony,  with 
the  figure  of  the  Indian  blazoned  on  it,  and  for  the  legend  over- 
head, the  Macedonian  cry,  "  Come  over  and  help  us  ! "  That 
was  the  spirit  in  which  the  nation  began ;  and  in  the  same  spirit 
its  development  has  been  carried  on  ever  since,  in  the  foundation 
of  schools  and  churches,  of  benevolent  institutions  of  whatever 
sort.  This  great  university,  which  gives  celebrity  to  this  noble 
and  beautiful  city,  was  founded  to  teach  men  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel, to  preach  a  sound,  energetic  theology  to  all  who  would  hear ; 
and  it  has  been  developed,  expanded,  built  up  to  its  present 
magnificent  proportions,  with  that  same  idea  behind  it,  and  the 
same  idea  within  it ;  as  Harvard  College  was  founded  in  the  same 
temper,  as  Williams  and  Amherst  and  Bowdoin  and  Dartmouth 
have  been  founded  for  the  same  purpose,  to  train  men  to  preach 
the  gospel.  That  has  been  the  idea  of  this  nation  from  the  outset 
on ;  and  it  was  that  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  Christian  people 
of  this  country  —  that  the  nation  was  designed  of  God  to  do  a 
great  work  for  him  in  the  furtherance  of  his  Kingdom  in  the  earth 
—  which  was  an  immense  power  in  our  Civil  War,  sustaining  the 
spirit  of  the  people  in  the  midst  of  disaster  and  defeat,  carrying 
them  upward  and  onward  till  the  final  consummating  victory  was 
reached.  They  believed  that  God  meant  this  nation  to  abide,  to 
abide  in  unity,  to  abide  in  freedom,  that  it  might  carry  the  gospel 


1 66        FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS." 

of  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  and  thus  came  unseen  bat- 
talions of  mighty  power  from  the  distant  lands  to  which  our  mis- 
sionaries had  gone,  and  in  which  our  missions  had  been  established, 
to  decide  the  fate  of  doubtful  battles,  to  carry  to  victory  the  ensigns 
of  the  Republic.  This  is  the  temper  of  the  nation ;  it  is  the  indi- 
cation within  it,  far-sighted  and  prophetic,  of  the  Divine  plan  and 
purpose  concerning  it.  And  here  is  to  be  the  glory  of  this  nation. 
It  is  not  in  its  history,  it  is  not  in  its  wealth,  it  is  not  in  its  vast 
commerce ;  the  glory  of  this  nation  of  which  you  and  I  are  part 
is,  and  is  to  be  more  and  more  distinctly  in  all  the  future,  in  the 
work  it  does  in  furthering  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  Gospel  of 
transformation,  until  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  have  seen  the 
salvation  of  our  Lord.     [Applause.] 

And  then  fourthly,  my  friends,  do  not  let  us  forget  the  final 
and  the  most  important  conviction  of  all,  which  is  one  that  has  been 
referred  to  here  again  and  again  in  the  course  of  these  meetings 
—  that  the  power,  after  all,  by  which  we  are  to  work  in  this  effort 
to  accomplish,  as  far  as  we  may,  God's  purpose  in  the  world,  is 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  not  in  the  truths,  stupendous 
as  they  are ;  it  is  not  in  the  facts,  transcendent  as  they  are ;  it  is 
not  in  the  tender  and  terrible  solemnity  and  pathos  of  the  Cross 
of  Christ,  even ;  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto 
us.  For  the  Church  in  the  world  often  simply  reflects  the  temper 
of  the  world  around  it.  As  the  waters  reflect  the  blue  of  the  sky 
above  them,  or  the  gold  or  crimson  or  black  of  the  clouds,  so  the 
Church  itself  is  continually  reflecting  more  or  less  distinctly  the 
temper  of  the  world  around  it ;  and  especially  in  times  like  ours, 
of  vast  secular  ambition  and  extraordinary  secular  success.  The 
temper  of  the  Church  becomes  secularized  too.  In  time  of 
prosperity  it  is  confident  and  boastful,  perhaps,  and  feels  that 
nothing  can  arrest  it ;  in  time  of  trouble,  pecuniary  or  other,  it  is 
despondent,  and  feels  that  there  is  no  use  in  further  endeavor. 
Then  quarrelsome  divisions  come  in,  as  they  come  in  the  neigh- 
borhoods of  the  world,  and  the  life  and  power  of  the  Church  fail 
because  there  is  not  this  Divine  energy  within  and  beneath.  It 
does  seem  to  me.  Brethren  of  the  American  Board  and  Christian 


FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        1 67 

Friends,  that  we  fail  wholly  to  apprehend  and  appreciate  the  fact 
that  in  this  tremendous  parenthesis  in  history,  between  the  ascen- 
sion of  the  Master  into  the  sky  and  his  coming  again  in  clouds 
and  glory  for  the  judgment  of  the  world,  the  Divine  agent  for 
carrying  forward  the  work  of  God  on  earth  is  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
the  Holy  Ghost  entering  into  the  hearts  of  men  ;  the  Holy  Ghost 
with  his  omnipotent  and  unsubduable  power,  silent  and  yet 
mighty.  Men  of  the  world  are  not  indisposed  to  sniff  at  this, 
because  they  do  not  see  the  power.  Well,  we  do  not  see  the 
powers  in  the  natural  creation  which  work  the  greatest  results.  We 
do  not  see  the  power  which  binds  the  universe  together.  It  is 
perfectly  impalpable,  though  we  are  all  within  its  grasp.  We  do 
not  see  the  power  in  the  vapor  which  revolutionizes  civilization, 
tunnels  the  mountains,  tramples  the  sea  into  a  floor ;  we  do  not 
see  the  power  in  the  type  which  the  finger  holds,  and  which 
dominates  cathedrals ;  we  do  not  see  the  power  in  the  little  spark 
which  abolishes  oceans  and  knits  nations  into  neighborhood.  All 
are  silent  unconspicuous  powers,  as  is  this  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
but  what  a  power  of  transformation  it  is,  in  individual  experience 
and  in  the  history  of  communities  !  what  a  power  to  lift  the  race 
nearer  the  holiness  of  the  throne  of  the  Most  High  !  It  is  the 
power  necessary  to  generate  and  to  maintain  missionary  enthu- 
siasm. Missionary  enthusiasm  is  not  merely  faith,  confidence  in 
God,  confidence  in  his  word ;  missionary  enthusiasm  is  love  for 
mankind,  inspired  by  and  touched  with  a  Divine  fire ;  and  where 
this  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  there  that  missionary  enthu- 
siasm manifests  itself  in  irresistible  energy  and  efficacy.  See  it 
in  the  missionaries  of  the  Middle  Ages,  to  whom  Dr.  Smith 
referred  yesterday  in  that  remarkable  paper,  in  Anskar  and 
Benedict  and  all  the  others.  You  see  it  in  the  missionaries  of  our 
own  time,  and  our  own  Board.  I  was  very  much  touched  the 
other  day  with  the  fact  that  a  missionary  woman,  wife  and  mother 
in  South  Africa,  out  of  her  small  savings  had  sent  a  gift  to  the 
American  Board  of  %y:>o  in  gratitude  for  the  commissioning  of 
her  third  child  to  do  missionary  service  in  foreign  lands  !  [Ap- 
plause.]    I  put  that  to  you,  reluctant  to   give  money,  utterly 


1 68        FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

unwilling  to  give  sons  and  daughters  to  this  distant  and  dangerous 
service  and  work,  and  ask  if  there  is  not  the  power  from  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  that  heart  which  you  more  vaguely,  if  at  all,  feel 
in  yourselves.  I  remember  that  passing  of  the  missionaries  at 
Harpoot  from  a  domicile  that  was  already  being  shattered  by  shot 
to  another  where,  for  the  time  at  least,  they  might  have  more 
security,  men  and  women  going  together  through  the  storm  of 
bullets,  carrying  two  who  were  too  aged  and  infirm  to  walk  them- 
selves, and  not  a  man  nor  a  woman  flinching  or  screaming  as  they 
moved  along  that  path  of  death  !  That 's  the  power  of  missionary 
enthusiasm ;  that 's  the  tranquillity  of  the  temper  that  is  insphered 
in  the  heart  of  God ;  and  when  that  power  is  among  the  churches, 
and  in  our  hearts,  then  treasures  are  unlocked,  then  divisions  are 
forbidden  or  are  reconciled,  and  then  is  the  energy  erf  the  Holy 
Ghost  revealed ;  working  through  our  small  affairs  to  accomplish 
the  sublime  Divine  design.  Yes,  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
—  that  is  the  energy  on  which  we  must  rely  to  carry  forward  this 
work  of  God  to  its  triumphant  and  immortal  success. 

So,  ray  dear  friends  and  brethren,  members  of  this  Board,  and 
Christian  people  interested  in  this  work  of  missions,  I  bring  to 
you  these  convictions,  which,  as  I  said,  are  not  new,  which  were 
central  in  my  heart  and  mind  ten  years  ago  when  I  faced  you  for 
the  first  time  on  the  platform  at  Springfield,  which  have  been  only 
more  and  more  thoroughly  and  vitally  enthroned  in  my  mind  and 
heart  from  that  day  to  this.  Let  us  work  alojig  the  lines,  and  on 
the  levels,  of  these  cardinal  and  superlative  convictions  :  that  God 
has  a  plan  in  history,  that  we  may  work  with  that  plan,  and  be  as 
sure  as  we  are  of  God's  character,  as  sure  as  we  are  of  God's  be- 
ing, that  ultimate  success  shall  crown  it ;  and  let  us  work  with  the 
Gospel,  the  Gospel  of  life  and  salvation,  which  he  has  crowded 
and  rammed  with  spiritual  appeal  to  every  soul  of  man.  Let  us 
work  feeling  that  this  is  the  opportunity  of  the  ages,  that  this  na- 
tion is  the  minister  of  God  for  the  ages  to  come  ;  by  its  position, 
by  its  power  and  resources,  by  its  relation  to  other  peoples,  by  its 
past  history,  it  is  the  servant  of  God  for  furthering  His  divine  de- 
signs on  earth ;  and  let  us  work  always  in  the  inspiration  of  that 


FOUNDATION  TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS.        1 69 

Holy  Ghost  who  separated  Barnabas  and  Saul  to  the  work  of  mis- 
sions, who  separated  the  medieval  missionaries  from  all  the  quiet- 
ness of  monasteries  and  the  seclusion  and  delight  of  Ubraries, 
to  go  out  facing  death  that  they  might  teach  men  of  the  Lord. 
Let  us.  work  under  the  power  of  that  Spirit  which  we  have  seen  in 
our  own  missionaries,  felt  in  our  own  hearts  —  felt  more  than 
once,  thank  God,  in  these  great  assemblies ;  and  let  us  do 
promptly  what  we  have  to  do  ! 

I  look  back  to  that  evening  at  Springfield  ten  years  ago, 
and  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  members  of  the  Board 
then  present  and  voting,  I  think  a  full  third  have  already  passed 
away  from  life  on  the  earth,  among  them  some  of  the  most  eminent 
and  distinguished  :  two  secretaries.  Dr.  Clark  and  Dr.  Alden ; 
the  honored  and  beloved  treasurer,  Mr.  Ward ;  Ezra  Famsworth, 
at  that  time  and  for  a  long  time  a  chief  member  of  the  Pruden- 
tial Committee ;  many  of  the  distinguished  members,  as  I  have 
said,  of  the  Board,  among  them  my  own  deeply  loved  and  trusted 
friends,  Dr.  Dexter,  Dr.  Quint,  Dr.  William  M.Taylor  —  whose 
name,  as  often  as  I  utter  it,  brings  a  fresh  throb  to  my  heart. 
These  were  the  three  men  who  said  to  me :  "  You  hesitate,  you 
reluctate  before  this  election ;  accept  it  and  do  your  best,"  which 
I  have  tried  to  do.  [Applause.]  I  remember,  also,  the  others : 
President  Porter,  President  Seelye,  President  Chapin,  President 
Andrews,  Dr.  Eddy,  Dr.  Magoun,  Dr.  Patton,  Dr.  Harding,  Dr. 
Atwood,  my  college  classmate  and  lifelong  friend,  Dr.  Robbins, 
my  own  pupil  in  the  Gospel,  Dr.  Malcolm  Dana  —  I  cannot  recall 
them  all,  these  are  examples ;  and  my  dear  kinsman  according 
to  the  flesh,  my  dear  brother  in  the  spirit  and  the  life  of  the  soul, 
at  whose  house  I  tarried  then,  to  whose  house  the  messengers  of 
the  Board  came  to  notify  me  of  my  election,  my  dearly  honored 
and  beloved  and  trusted  Dr.  Eustis,  of  Springfield.  I  remember, 
too,  the  noble  laymen  who  have  been  associated  in  the  Board  and 
who  were  there  at  that  time,  who  have  passed  on  :  Mr.  Battell,  of 
this  State  ;  Mr.  Monroe,  of  this  State ;  Frederick  Billings,  Horace 
Fairbanks,  Mr.  James  P.  Wallace,  of  my  own  church ;  Mr.  John 
N.  Stickney,  Mr.  James  White,  Mr.  Charles  Theodore  Russetl, 


170       FOUNDATION   TRUTHS   OF  AMERICAN  MISSIONS. 

Mr.  Samuel  D.  Warren,  Mr.  Philip  Moen  —  oh,  I  cannot  begin  to 
recite  the  names  !  you  remember  them.  All  these  have  gone  on 
into  the  life  beyond. 

My  dear  Friends,  let  us  work  !  It  has  been  said  to  us  here, 
again  and  again,  in  the  course  of  this  meeting,  "  Work  while  the 
day  lasts,  for  the  night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work."  I  cer- 
tainly shall  not  dispute  that  word  from  the  lips  of  the  Master ; 
but  I  will  add,  with  the  Apostle,  work,  and  work  with  all  your 
heart  and  with  all  your  might,  not  only  because  the  night  cometh, 
for  we  are  the  children  of  light  and  the  children  of  the  day ;  we 
are  not  of  night  nor  of  darkness ;  therefore  let  us  be  sober,  put- 
ting on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  and  for  a  helmet  the 
hope  of  salvation,  since  the  Lord  hath  not  called  us  to  death  but 
to  hfe,  that  we  may  live  together  with  Him,  whether  we  wake  or 
sleep  on  the  earth.  I  think  of  those  who  have  gone  on,  not  as 
buried  in  the  dust  of  death,  not  as  sleeping  in  the  darkness  and 
the  silence  ;  I  think  of  them  as  ascending  the  starry  steeps  and  stand- 
ing before  God,  as  hearing  the  Master's  voice  of  welcome  and 
acclaim,  and  joining  in  the  worship  of  angels  and  of  saints,  their 
works  following  with  them  -,  and  I  pray  God  that  you  and  I  may 
be  with  them,  and  hear  the  same  voice  of  welcome,  when  the 
shadows  flee,  and  the  darkness  disperses,  and  the  splendor  of  Im- 
mortality breaks  upon  our  vision  !     [Applause.] 


X. 


Cl^e  pttmantnt  iWiotite  in  ^iMomtv 
movfu 


ADDRESS  AT  THE    INTERNATIONAL    CONGREGATIONAL  COUNCIL, 
BOSTON,  1899. 


THE   PERMANENT  MOTIVE  IN   MISSIONARY 

WORK. 


Mr.  President,  Brothers  and  Sisters  of  the  Council,  Christian 
Friends:  No  one,  I  am  sure,  can  more  profoundly  regret  than 
I  do  the  removal  by  death  from  this  scene  and  this  service  of  our 
honored  and  beloved  brother,  Dr.  Lamson,  president  of  our  old- 
est and  largest  missionary  society.  His  work  in  the  world-wide 
interest  of  missions  was  finished  when  it  seemed  to  us  to  have 
hardly  begun.  The  star  went  down  when  it  had  scarcely  crossed 
the  meridian ;  and  we  are  left,  as  so  often  we  have  before  been 
left,  to  bow  before  an  inscrutable  wisdom,  and  to  say,  "  Thy  ways, 
O  Lord,  are  past  finding  out ;  nevertheless,  not  our  will  but  thine 
be  done."  It  must  strike  one  with  a  sense  of  unnaturalness,  that 
the  older  tree  should  stand  when  the  younger  and  more  vigorous 
has  been  suddenly  broken ;  and  that  I,  who  have  been  retired 
from  every  occasion  of  this  kind  for  many  months,  should  be 
suddenly  called  upon  to  take  his  place  for  the  service  which  he 
would  far  more  suitably  have  performed.  But  we  have  to  face 
facts  as  they  meet  us  in  life  and  adjust  ourselves  to  them,  and  to 
do  as  courageously  as  we  may  the  duty  which  seems  plainly  to  fall 
to  us. 

Standing  for  the  hour  in  his  place,  I  can  only  suggest  some 
thoughts,  which  may  or  may  not  be  coincident  with  those  which 
he  would  have  presented  if  he  were  here,  but  which  were  borne 
in  upon  my  own  mind,  constantly,  while  I  occupied  the  office  in 
which  he  succeeded  me,  and  to  which  I  am  sure  he  would  give 
his  cordial  assent. 

The  Permanent  Motive  in  Missionary  Work :  that  was  the 
theme  which  he  had  selected,  and  which  we  had  hoped  to  hear 


174 


THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 


treated  by  him  with  his  customary  and  characteristic  eloquence, 
impressing  upon  us  his  matured  thought,  and  his  earnest  and  in- 
spiring feehng  on  the  great  subject.  It  is  a  catholic  and  compre- 
hensive, even  a  cosmopolitan  theme.  It  does  not  concern  itself 
simply  with  the  interest  of  foreign  missions,  technically  so  called, 
although  it  may  be  that  that  interest  was  prominent  before  his 
mind  as  he  chose  and  announced  the  theme.  But,  if  you  think 
of  it,  it  concerns  not  Congregationalists  only,  but  those  in  every 
Christian  communion  who  are  trying  to  further  the  cause  and 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  on  the  earth.  It  concerns  not  the  mission- 
ary fields  alone,  as  they  are  popularly  called,  in  other  lands,  but 
every  field  in  which  Christian  service  is  sought  to  be  rendered, 
from  the  obscurest  slum  in  this  town  of  Boston  to  the  ragged 
edges  of  the  circumference,  the  outmost  circumference,  of  the 
world  of  mankind.  The  Permanent  Motive  in  Missionary  or 
Christian  Work  :  that  is  what  we  are  to  look  for. 

We  are  familiar,  of  course,  with  the  temporary,  local,  changing 
motives  to  missionary  enterprise,  which  meet  us  at  times,  impress 
us  forcibly  for  the  moment,  and  pass  away ;  the  influence  of  great 
and  signal  occasions,  when  sympathie  are  almost  tumultuously 
excited ;  the  impulse  which  comes  with  a  sweeping  eloquence, 
which  lifts  us  from  the  common  levels  of  earth,  and  bears  us  as 
on  wings  toward  issues  and  actions  which  we  had  not  anticipated ; 
perhaps  the  impulse  which  comes  with  personal  interest  in  mis- 
sionaries whom  we  have  known,  or  mission  fields  which  we  have 
traversed.  Great  successes  on  certain  fields  move  our  enthusi- 
asm ;  or  tragic  and  terrible  experiences  in  others,  as  recently 
among  the  Armenians,  stir  the  deep  fountains  of  our  feeling.  No 
one  of  these  impulses  is  to  be  disregarded.  Each  one  in  its 
place  has  a  power  of  its  own,  and  all  are  to  be  valued  and  wel- 
comed for  their  effect.  But  what  we  are  to  look  for  is  the  motive 
more  deep,  permanent,  governing,  which  will  be  beneath  and  be- 
hind all  these ;  as  the  tide-motive  is  beneath  and  behind  the  ad- 
vancing and  retreating  waves  which  rise  and  flash,  and  break  upon 
the  beach ;  and  this  will  be  a  motive  not  simple  and  single,  but 
no  doubt  combined  of  several,  distinguishable  from  each  other, 
as  a  powerful  current  is  made  up  of  different  uniting  affluents. 


IN  MISSIONARY   WORK.  I  75 

We  must  separate  them  in  thought,  that  we  may  afterward  com- 
bine them. 

I  think  first,  then,  we  shall  all  recognize  this  as  essential  to  the 
missionary  motive  :  a  clear  and  profound  recognition  of  the  evil- 
ness  and  misery  of  the  actual  condition  of  mankind,  certainly  as 
compared  with  the  powers  which  are  instinctive  in  every  human 
soul.  It  makes  no  difference  really,  or  very  little,  at  this  point, 
whether  we  accept  the  Scriptural  declaration  that  man  has  fallen 
from  a  higher  estate  to  his  present  level,  or  conceive,  with  some 
modern  theorizers,  that  man  is  just  now  partially  emerging  from 
the  conditions  of  his  brute-ancestry,  stumbling  up,  through  sin 
and  error  and  manifold  tremendous  mistakes,  toward  wisdom  and 
virtue,  and  the  blessedness  which  they  bring.  In  either  case,  the 
present  condition  of  mankind  is  one  of  imperfection,  weakness, 
unsatisfied  desire,  unreaHzed.  promise,  and  manifold  peril.  It  is 
not  the  missionary  who  tells  us  this,  principally  or  alone.  Every 
observant  foreign  traveler  repeats  the  same.  Every  one  who  has 
resided  abroad,  and  then  has  come  back  to  testify  with  an  un- 
prejudiced mind  to  that  which  he  has  observed,  relates  the  same. 
The  supreme  difficulty  here  is  in  the  want  of  the  recognition  of 
God,  and  of  the  great  Immortality. 

It  used  to  be  a  reproach  against  Christian  scholars,  made  by 
skeptics,  that  they  investigated  the  ethnic  religions  in  the  spirit  of 
suspicious  hostility,  by  which  their  processes  were  diverted  from 
true  lines,  by  which  their  conclusions  were  colored.  I  am  not 
concerned  to  argue  the  case  of  the  Christian  scholars  of  fifty  years 
ago,  or  more,  but  I  can  certainly  affirm  that  the  Christian  scholars 
of  our  own  time  investigate  these  religions  carefully,  patiently, 
sympathetically,  with  an  eager  desire  to  find  everything  in  them 
that  is  of  beautiful  worth ;  and  they  do  find  many  things  of  truth 
and  beauty,  many  things  which  excite  their  admiration,  as  illus- 
trating the  attainment  of  the  higher  aspiration  of  the  human 
mind,  reaching  after  the  Unseen  if  haply  it  might  find  it.  But  they 
find  nowhere  the  discovery  of  one  personal  God,  eternal  in  au- 
thority, immaculate  in  character,  creating  man  in  his  own  image, 
and  opening  before  him  the  ageless  immensities  beyond  the  grave  ; 
and  in  the  absence  of  such  recognition  of  God,  and  such  recogni- 


I  76  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

tion  of  the  Immortality,  man  is  left  to  grope  where  he  cannot  fly, 
to  clutch  the  earth  where  he  misses  Heaven.  So  it  is  that  indus- 
trially, politically,  commercially,  socially,  intellectually,  he  is  on 
the  lower  level,  until  some  exterior  power  reaches  and  ennobles 
him.  So  it  is  that  crime,  such  as  is  unknown  in  Christian  com- 
munities, is  familiar  and  tolerated  in  the  world.  In  fact,  we  need 
not  fix  our  thought,  prominently,  on  the  more  devilish  crimes 
which  still  exist  in  parts  and  portions  of  the  earth,  —  cannibalism, 
infanticide,  human  sacrifices,  self-torture,  the  slavery  that  would 
destroy  body  and  soul  together  in  its  own  hell.  Commoner  vices 
have  told  us  the  story  sufificiently,  —  drunkenness,  licentiousness, 
the  gambling  passion,  the  opium  habit^  the  fierce  self-will  that 
rushes  to  its  end,  regardless  of  anything  sacred,  in  order  to  attain 
its  pleasure. 

All  these  we  know.  How  familiar  they  are  to  the  mind,  and  in 
the  life,  of  the  world  at  large  !  And  there  seems  no  power  arising 
within  the  circle  not  reached  by  Christian  influence  to  relieve  the 
gloom,  to  elevate  those  who  are  oppressed  by  these  sore  burdens. 
There  is  no  power.  Property  asserts  its  right  to  oppress,  and  to 
enjoy ;  poverty  accepts  its  function,  however  unwillingly,  of  suffer- 
ing in  silence ;  the  degradation  of  woman  strikes  a  vicious  stab  at 
the  heart  and  conscience  of  immense  communities,  while  the  op- 
pression of  childhood  blights  life  at  its  germ  ;  and,  with  the  pros- 
pect of  nothing  better  to  come,  suicide  becomes  a  common  refuge 
from  the  unbearable  misery.  There  is  nothing  overstated  in  this 
description  of  the  world  at  large  ;  and  you  know  how  it  is  in  your 
city-slums,  even  in  this  city  of  refinement  and  culture  I  have  no 
doubt,  certainly  in  the  city  in  which  I  live ;  in  the  London  and 
Birmingham  of  the  other  side,  where  the  little  girl  twelve  years 
old  had  never  heard  the  name  of  Christ,  where  the  boy  of  about 
the  same  age  only  knew  the  nature  of  an  oath  by  having  been  his 
lordship's  caddy.  These  are  what  we  are  to  reach  and  lift,  if  we 
can  do  it.  These  are  they  to  whom  we  are  to  bring  blessings  from 
the  Most  High.  Certainly,  every  heart  in  which  there  is  a  spark 
of  Christian  sympathy  must  feel  the  power  of  this  motive,  pressing 
to  the  utmost  and  instant  exertion  of  every  force  to  relieve  the 
suffering,  to  enlighten  the  darkened,  and  to  lift  the  oppressed. 


IN  MISSIONARY    WORK.  I  77 

No  one  need  exaggerate,  every  one  should  recognize,  the  weak- 
ness and  wretchedness,  the  exposure  and  the  peril  of  human 
society.  When  we  rQmember  that  in  this  universe  of  ours  destiny 
clings  closely  to  character,  has  never  anything  mechanical  or  arbi- 
trary about  it,  but  follows  the  spirit  which  encounters  it,  then 
those  tremendous  words  of  our  Lord  in  the  twenty-fifth  of 
Matthew  have  upon  them  an  appalling  sharpness  and  reach,  as 
addressed  to  great  classes  and  companies  of  mankind ;  and  we 
must  recognize  it,  and  hear  the  solemn  bell  of  the  universe  ring- 
ing through  his  word,  and  telling  us  of  what  is  to  be  looked  for  in 
the  Hereafter. 

But  then  with  this  recognition  of  the  exposure  and  peril  of 
human  society,  of  mankind  at  large,  we  must  associate  the  recog- 
nition of  the  recoverableness  to  truth,  to  virtue  and  God,  of  per- 
sons and  of  peoples  who  are  now  involved  in  these  calamities  and 
pains ;  to  whom,  now,  unrest  and  apprehension  are  as  natural  as 
speech  or  sight ;  the  recoverableness  of  men  as  persons,  and  of 
communities  as  well  as  persons. 

Here,  of  course,  we  come  into  direct  antagonism  with  the  pes- 
simist, who  says,  "  It  is  all  nonsense  !  you  can't  possibly  do  the 
work  ;  you  can't  take  these  ragged  and  soiled  remnants  of  human- 
ity in  your  city-streets  and  weave  them  into  purple  and  golden 
garments  for  the  Master ;  you  cannot  accomplish  the  effect  which 
you  contemplate,  in  the  cities,  in  your  own  land,  along  the  frontier, 
or  in  other  lands.  It  is  as  impossible  to  make  the  unchaste  pure, 
to  make  the  mean  noble,  as  it  is  to  make  crystal  lenses  out  of 
mud,  or  the  delicate  elastic  watch-spring  out  of  the  iron  slag  ! " 
That  is  the  world's  view,  a  common  and  a  hateful  view.  Our  an- 
swer to  it  is  that  the  thing  can  be  done,  and  has  been  done,  and 
done  in  such  multitudes  of  instances  that  there  is  no  use  whatever 
in  arguing  against  the  fact.  Christ  came  from  the  heavens  to  the 
earth  on  an  errand.  He  knew  what  was  in  man ;  and  he  did  not 
come  from  the  celestial  seats  on  an  errand  seen  and  known  be- 
forehand to  be  fruitless  and  futile.  He  came  because  he  knew 
the  interior,  central,  divine  element  in  human  nature,  to  which  he 
could  appeal  and  by  which  he  could  lift  men  toward  things  tran- 
scendent.    We    have   seen   the  examples  of  success,  how  many 


178  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

times  !  hundreds,  yea  even  thousands  of  times,  in  our  own  com- 
munities, as  missionaries  have  seen  them  in  the  lands  abroad  : 
where  the  woman  intemperate,  in  harlotry,  in  despair,  has  been 
lifted  to  restored  womanhood,  as  the  pearl  oyster  is  brought  up 
with  its  precious  contents  from  the  slimy  ooze ;  where  the  man 
whose  lips  had  been  charged  with  foulest  blasphemies  has  become 
the  preacher  of  the  gospel  of  light  and  love,  of  hope  and  peace, 
to  others,  his  former  comrades  ;  where  the  feet  that  were  swift  to 
do  evil  have  become  beautiful  on  the  mountains  in  publishing  sal- 
vation. We  have  seen  these  things  in  individuals  and  in  com- 
munities ;  in  the  roughest  frontier  mining-camp,  where  every  door 
opened  on  a  saloon  or  a  brothel,  or  a  gambling-table,  and  where, 
by  the  power  coming  from  on  high,  it  has  been  transformed  into 
the  peaceful  Christian  village,  with  the  home,  with  the  school, 
with  the  church,  with  the  asylum,  with  the  holy  song,  where  the 
former  customary  music  had  been  the  crack  of  revolvers.  We 
have  seen  the  same  thing  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  coral  islands, 
scenes  of  savage  massacre  and  of  cannibal  riot  and  ferocity, 
where  the  church  has  been  planted,  and  Christian  fellowships 
have  been  established  and  maintained.  We  have  seen  these 
things,  and  why  argue  against  facts  ? 

Arguing  against  fact,  as  men  ultimately  find  out,  is  like  trying 
to  stop  with  articulate  breath  the  march  of  the  stately  battleship 
Olympia,  as  she  sweeps  onward  to  her  anchorage.  An  argument 
may  meet  a  contrary  argument;  no  argument  can  overwhelm  a 
fact.  And  these  facts  in  experience  are  as  sure,  as  difficult  of  be- 
lief perhaps,  but  as  compulsive  of  belief,  as  are  the  scientific 
demonstrations  of  the  liquid  air,  of  the  wireless  telegraphy.  We 
do  not  question  the  reality  of  what  we  see  ;  and  we  know  that 
these  effects  have  been  produced,  on  the  smaller  scale  and  on 
the  larger.  I  suppose  that  every  one  who  has  ever  stood  on  the 
heights  above  Naples,  at  the  church  of  San  Martino,  on  the  way 
to -St.  Elmo,  has  noticed,  as  I  remember  to  have  noticed,  that  all 
the  sounds  coming  up  from  that  gay,  populous,  brilliant,  fascinat- 
ing city,  as  they  reached  the  upper  air,  met  and  mingled  on  the 
minor  key.  There  were  the  voices  of  traffic  and  the  voices  of 
command,  the  voices  of  affection  and  the  voices  of  rebuke,  the 


IN  MISSIONARY    WORK.  I  79 

shouts  of  sailors,  and  the  cries  of  itinerant  venders  in  the  street, 
with  the  chatter  and  the  laugh  of  childhood ;  but  they  all  came 
up  into  this  incessant  moan  in  the  air.  That  is  the  voice  of  the 
World  in  the  upper  air,  where  there  are  spirits  to  hear  it.  That 
is  the  cry  of  the  World  for  help.  And  here  is  the  answer  to  that 
cry  :  a  song  of  triumph  and  glorious  expectation,  taking  the  place 
of  the  moan,  in  the  village,  in  the  city,  in  the  great  community ; 
men  and  women  out  of  whom  multitudes  of  devils  have  been 
cast,  as  out  of  him  of  old,  sitting  clothed,  and  in  their  right  minds, 
at  the  feet  of  Jesus. 

You  cannot  tell  me  that  it  is  impossible  to  produce  these  effects, 
for  mine  own  eyes  have  seen  them,  mine  own  hands  have  touched 
them.  I  know  their  reality,  and  that  every  human  soul  which  has 
not  committed  the  final  sin  and  passed  the  judgment  is  recover- 
able to  God,  if  the  right  remedy  be  definitely  applied  \  and  that 
every  people,  however  weak,  however  sinful,  however  wanting  in 
hope  and  expectation,  has  within  it  the  possibility,  and  above  it 
the  promise,  of  the  Millennium.  God's  power  is  adequate  to  all 
that.  We  want  to  associate  this  idea  of  the  recoverableness  of 
persons  and  of  peoples  to  the  highest  ideal  and  to  God  himself ; 
we  want  to  combine  this  with  the  idea  of  man's  present  misery 
and  hopelessness  in  his  condition,  to  constitute  the  true  and 
powerful  missionary  motive ;  and  then  we  want  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  one  force  which,  being  used, 
secures  this  result  in  the  most  unpromising  conditions. 

Here,  again,  we  encounter  the  opposition  of  multitudes.  How 
often  men  have  laughed,  how  loudly  they  have  laughed,  at  the 
idea  that  the  story  of  the  crucified  Nazarene  could  inspire  a 
despondent  soul  to  hope,  could  purify  the  vicious  soul  unto  virtue, 
could  bring  any  soul  nearer  to  God  !  Perhaps  somewhere  they 
are  laughing  at  it  now ;  possibly  even  in  this  city  of  Boston,  the 
home  of  culture  and  refinement,  of  fine  and  wide  thought  —  I 
don't  know,  I  don't  live  here  ;  but  I  know  that  in  the  country  at 
large  there  are  always  those  who  are  disposed  to  say,  "  It  is  per- 
fectly puerile  to  try  to  reach  human  sorrow  and  human  sin  with 
the  power  of  the  Gospel,  lodged  in  the  little  book  which  the  child 
may  carry  in  her  hand  !  "     As  if  the  inconspicuous  forces  in  the 


l8o  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

world's  development  were  not  always  those  deadliest  on  the  one 
hand,  or  most  benign  on  the  other ;  as  if  wafts  of  air  did  not  kill 
multitudes  more  than  all  the  batteries  of  artillery ;  as  if  the  unseen 
forces,  hardly  manifesting  themselves  at  all,  were  not  those  which 
society  seizes  by  which  to  advance  itself  most  rapidly  and  grandly  — 
that  little  spark,  vanishing  instantaneously,  but  revealing  the  unseen 
force  which  drives  machineries,  draws  carriages,  illuminates  cities, 
and  enables  you  and  me  to  talk  as  if  face  to  face  with  friends  and 
correspondents  at  the  distance  of  a  thousand  miles ;  that  fleecy 
vapor,  vanishing  silently  into  the  air  but  representing  the  gigantic 
servant  of  modern  civilization,  which  tunnels  mountains,  scoops 
out  mines,  and  links  the  continents  together  in  iron  bands.  These 
unseen  powers  are  the  ones  that  man  craves  and  uses,  or  that,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  dreads  and  repels ;  and  the  power  of  the  Gos- 
pel, however  men  may  smile  at  the  idea  of  that  power,  has  vindi- 
cated itself  too  many  times  to  be  assailed  by  argument,  certainly 
too  many  times  to  be  encountered  with  ridicule. 

The  Gospel  is  able  to  reconstitute  society  by  reconstructing  the 
character  of  individuals.  Through  its  effect  on  persons  it  opens 
the  way  for  vast  national  advances.  It  touches  not  merely  the 
higher  themes,  but  all  the  themes  that  are  associated  with  those, 
and  immediately  pertinent  to  the  interest  of  mankind.  It  teaches 
frugality  and  industry,  and  honesty,  by  express  command,  and  by 
the  divine  example  of  Him  who  brought  it  to  us.  It  turns  men, 
as  has  been  forcibly  said,  "  out  of  the  trails  of  blood  and  plunder 
into  the  path  of  honest  toil."  It  is  a  gospel  for  every  creature, 
that  is,  for  every  created  thing ;  and  gardens  bloom  in  a  lovelier 
beauty  under  its  influence,  and  harvest-festivals,  of  which  the 
country  is  full  to-day.  are  only  its  natural  and  beautiful  fruit  and 
trophy.  It  exalts  womanhood ;  and  by  the  honor  it  puts  on 
womanhood,  and  by  the  honor  it  puts  on  childhood,  it  inaugurates 
the  new  family-life  in  the  world.  It  honors,  as  no  other  religion 
does  or  ever  did,  the  essential  worth  of  the  immortal  spirit  in 
man ;  and  it  forces  him,  pushes  him,  crowds  him,  into  thoughtful- 
ness  and  educational  discipline,  since  it  will  not  allow  him  to  be 
manipulated  into  paradise  by  any  priestly  hand,  but  comes  to  him 
in  a  Book,  and  sets  him  to  work  to  investigate  its  contents,  to 


IN  MISSIONARY    WORK.  l8l 

inquire  concerning  it,  to  look  out  widely  around  it,  and  to  inform 
himself  by  careful  thought  of  what  it  is  and  what  it  means. 

There  is  the  basis  of  colleges  and  theological  seminaries,  and  I 
hope  there  will  be  no  quarrel  between  them  !  There  is  the  basis  of 
all  the  educational  institutions  and  influences  that  are  worthy  in 
the  world.  Christianity  brings  them.  It  generates  by  degrees  a 
new  social  conscience.  It  unites  communities,  on  which  it  has 
operated,  in  new  relationships  to  each  other.  International  alli- 
ances become  possible,  become  vital.  International  law  becomes 
a  reality  and  a  power ;  beneficence  is  stimulated,  and  law  becomes 
ethical.  As  we  have  seen  recently,  in  the  prodigious  excitement 
of  feeling  throughout  civiHzed  countries  in  consequence  of  the 
apparent  gross  injustice  done  to  a  single  French  officer  by  a  mili- 
tary court,  the  time  is  coming,  though  it  has  not  yet  fully  come, 
when  mankind  shall  be  one  in  spirit,  and  an 

"...  instinct  bear  along, 
Round  the  earth's  electric  circle, 
One  swift  flash  of  right  or  wrong." 

It  is  not  commerce  which  does  this,  it  is  Christianity.  We  are 
witnesses  to  it.  Our  ancestors,  not  many  centuries  ago,  were  mere 
rapacious  savages,  robbers  in  the  forest,  pirates  on  the  sea ;  it  was 
Christianity,  brought  to  them,  that  Hfted  them  into  gladness, 
serenity,  great  purpose,  great  expectation  and  hope  ;  and  the  new 
civilization  in  which  we  rejoice  on  either  side,  I  will  not  say  of  the 
separating,  of  the  uniting,  ocean,  was  founded  on  that  New  Testa- 
ment, the  folios  of  which,  I  believe,  are  still  preserved  in  Corpus 
Christi  College  in  Cambridge,  and  in  the  Bodleian  Library  at 
Oxford.  Here  is  the  basis  of  what  has  been  grandest,  most  illus- 
trious, and  most  prophetic,  in  the  recent  history  of  mankind. 
Give  the  Gospel  freedom  and  it  will  everywhere  show  this  power. 
Among  the  children  and  youth  to  whom  it  goes,  among  the  mature 
and  the  strong,  wheresoever  it  goes,  it  grapples  conscience,  it  stim- 
ulates the  heart.  That  one  sentence,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,"  is  the  profoundest  truth,  is  the  most 
persuasive  and  commanding  appeal,  ever  addressed  by  an  inspired 


l82  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

apostle  to  the  children  of  mankind ;  and  wherever  that  is  heard, 
sin  is  lost  in  penitence,  and  hope  is  lost  in  triumphant  vision,  and 
the  glory  of  the  world  disappears  before  the  glory  immutable  of 
the  Son  of  God  ! 

Then  we  are  to  remember,  certainly  never  is  this  to  be  forgotten, 
that  the  great  imperishable  motive,  surpassing  and  dominating 
every  other  in  missionary  effort,  is  adoring  love  toward  Christ,  as 
central  in  the  Scripture,  glorified  in  history.  No  student  of  his- 
tory, no  observer  of  human  experience,  can  fail  to  see  that  there 
is  the  sovereign  passion  possible  to  human  nature ;  beside  which 
the  passion  of  love  for  a  friend,  for  a  country,  for  a  business,  for 
studies,  may  be  auxiliary,  but  must  be  subordinate.  There  is  the 
passion  which  has  done  the  grandest  things  the  world  has  ever 
known.  There  is  the  passion  the  vision  of  which  interprets  to  us 
the  strangest,  sublimest  pages  of  history.  We  have  all  felt  it,  I 
am  sure,  if  we  are  Christian,  in  our  measure,  and  at  times ;  at  the 
sacrament,  perhaps ;  in  those  sabbaths  of  the  soul  of  which  Cole- 
ridge speaks,  when  the  mind  eddies  around  instead  of  flowing 
onward ;  when  we  have  been  moved  to  a  great  effort  for  Him 
whom  we  love ;  most  keenly,  perhaps,  when  we  have  been  in 
keenest  sorrow,  when  the  earth  was  as  iron  under  our  feet  and  the 
heavens  as  brass  above  our  head,  and  we  were  all  alone,  yet  not 
alone,  for  there  stood  beside  us  one  in  the  form  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  making  luminous  the  dark  !  We  have  felt  this  love  toward 
Christ ;  and  when  we  have  felt  it  we  have  known  that  no  power 
could  surpass  or  approach  it  in  the  intensity  of  its  moving  force, 
to  every  enterprise,  great,  difficult  howsoever  it  might  be,  by  which 
he  would  be  honored. 

Love  has  been  the  sovereign  po^ver  in  all  the  church.  Judg- 
ment may  be  generous  ;  love  is  lavish.  Judgment  may  be  stead- 
fast in  its  conclusions ;  love  is  heroic  in  its  affirmations.  It  was 
love  that  garnished  the  house,  and  poured  out  the  spikenard, 
and  spiced  the  sepulcher.  It  was  love  that  faced  the  flame,  as  in 
Felicitas  and  Perpetua,  fronting  the  dungeon  and  not  shrinking, 
fronting  the  sword  and  not  blanching.  It  was  love  that  said, 
"The  nearer  the  sword,  the  nearer  to  God."  You  cannot  con- 
quer that  power,  indestructible,  full  of  a  divine  energy. 


IN  MISSIONARY    WORK.  1 83 

And  with  the  experience  of  this  comes  the  vivid  vision  of  the 
Divine  Providence,  working  for  the  gospel  in  human  history. 
How  wonderful  it  is !  Look  at  the  progress  of  the  last  ninety 
years,  since  missionary  work  began  in  this  country  !  The 
changes,  except  as  they  are  matters  of  public  record  and  of 
universal  personal  observation,  would  be  simply  unthinkable  — 
the  vast  new  machineries  of  travel  and  of  commerce ;  the  incal- 
culable additions  to  the  wealth  of  civilized  lands ;  the  ever- 
increasing  prosperity  and  power  of  Protestant  nations,  in  which 
the  gospel  is  honored ;  the  equally  ever-reduced  power  and 
lessening  fame  of  nations,  ancient  and  famous,  in  which  the  gos- 
pel is  refused  free  movement  with  a  home  among  the  people ;  the 
continually  closer  approaches  of  civilized  and  Protestant  nations 
to  each  other,  as  of  Great  Britain  and  this  country.  Many  years 
ago  Lord  Brougham  said,  you  remember,  "  Not  an  axe  falls  in  the 
American  forest  but  it  sets  in  motion  a  shuttle  in  Manchester." 
That  has  been  true  ever  since,  and  is  more  true  to-day  than  ever 
before.  Not  a  mine  is  opened,  not  an  industry  established,  not 
a  mechanism  invented  in  the  one  country,  which  is  not  recognized, 
and  the  power  of  which  is  not  felt,  in  the  other ;  and  more  and 
more  their  policies  are  weaving  together,  not  necessarily  in  form, 
but  in  fundamental,  underlying  sympathy.  All  these  things  are 
going  forward  with  the  opening  of  regions  and  realms  formerly 
inaccessible  to  Christianity ;  so  that  now  the  Christianity  which 
seemed  buried  in  the  catacombs,  which  seemed  burned  up  in  the 
martyr  fires,  has  the  freedom  of  the  world,  and  may  everywhere 
be  preached  in  its  purity  and  its  power.  Here  are  the  plans  of 
God  going  forward ;  and  we  ought  to  feel  in  ourselves  that  in 
every  hardest  work  we  do  we  are  only  keeping  step  with  the 
march  of  Omnipotence. 

I  know  that  there  are  many  who  fear  that  the  prosperity  of  our 
times,  the  love  of  pleasure,  the  desire  for  ease  and  enjoyment, 
are  to  interfere  with  and  stay  these  plans  of  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence for  the  furtherance  of  Christ's  church,  and  of  his  cause  in 
the  world.  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  fear,  though  I  do  not  share 
it.  Unquestionably  the  secular  spirit  is  more  intense  and  widely 
distributed  at  this  time  than  it  ever  was  before ;  and  the  oppor- 


184  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

tunities  for  its  gratification,  in  the  acquirement  of  wealth  and  in 
the  enjoyment  of  every  luxury,  are  greater  than  ever  before. 
Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that  Sunday  observance  is  far  less  strict, 
and  family  discipUne  and  training  far  less  careful,  than  they  were, 
perhaps,  in  the  days  of  our  own  childhood.  Sunday  newspapers 
make  almost  all  American  ministers  wish  they  were  Englishmen  ; 
and  Sunday  observance  among  ourselves  reminds  one  too  often 
of  that  colloquy  between  Joshua  and  Moses  as  they  were 
coming  down  from  the  mount  during  the  idol-feast,  when  the 
younger  said,  "  There  is  a  noise  of  war  in  the  camp."  "  No," 
said  the  elder  and  more  discerning,  "  it  is  not  the  voice  of  them 
that  shout  for  the  mastery,  neither  is  it  the  voice  of  them  that  cry 
for  being  overcome,  but  it  is  the  voice  of  them  that  sing  that  I 
hear."  Sometimes  in  our  congregations  I  think  it  is  not  the 
shout  for  the  mastery  of  the  truth,  pushing  it  upon  men,  it  is  not 
the  voice  of  them  that  cry,  in  penitence  and  humble  obedience, 
because  they  are  overcome,  but  it  is  the  voice  of  them  that  sing 
that  we  hear ;  and  the  singing  is  too  often  in  operatic  measures, 
and  done  by  quartets,  not  by  congregations  !  Talleyrand  was 
right  in  saying  years  ago  that  Americans  take  their  pleasures 
sadly.  I  think  that  we  are  right  also,  and  more  nearly  right,  when 
we  say  that  Americans  take  their  religion  too  lightly,  too  gaily,  as 
if  it  were  a  varnish  upon  life  instead  of  a  fire  and  power  within  it. 
We  need  to  meditate  much  more  than  we  do  on  those  great 
words  that  were  written  fifty  years  ago  and  more,  on  "  The  Ear- 
nest Church,"  written  by  the  predecessor  of  our  beloved  and 
honored  Dr.  Dale  of  Birmingham  :  a  man  of  such  singular  excel- 
lence, I  once  heard  Dr.  Cox  say,  that  it  required  an  angel  hyphen- 
ated between  the  two  apostles  to  make  a  name  worthy  of  him  — 
John  Angell  James.  We  need  to  meditate  upon  that,  and  to  gird 
ourselves  for  more  energetic  service  in  the  cause  of  the  Master. 

But  the  human  soul  is  still  beating,  and  full  of  life,  in  the  heart 
of  every  one  whom  we  address  ;  and  God's  gospel  has  its  grip  on 
that  human  soul  whenever  it  reaches  it  through  our  ministry,  and 
lifts  it  nearer  the  things  supernal,  and  nearer  God  himself.  While 
I  see  many  things  to  make  us  solicitous,  I  see  nothing  to  make  us 
timid,  concerning  these  mighty  advancing  plans  of  God.     If  per- 


IN  MISSIONARY   WORK.  1 85 

secution  could  not  stay  them,  if  prelacy  could  not  finally  thwart 
them,  I  do  not  believe  that  bicycles  are  going  to  override  them, 
in  the  end,  or  that  they  are  to  find  their  grave  in  the  fascinating 
golf-links.  No  !  there  is  One  who  sitteth  above  the  circle  of 
the  earth,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grasshoppers ;  and 
his  plans  go  forth,  soundless,  silent,  except  as  they  come  into 
operation.  But  they  never  are  broken ;  they  never  are  drawn 
back ;  and  the  world  has  to  learn  more  and  more  clearly,  every 
century,  that  the  banners  of  God  are  those  which  never  go  down 
in  any  struggle,  and  that  whoever  walks  and  works  with  God  is 
sure  of  the  triumph. 

Then  do  not  let  us  ever  forget  that  this  is  the  sublime  interval 
in  history  between  the  ascension  of  the  Master  and  his  second 
coming  in  power  and  glory,  to  judge  the  world  !  "  In  a  grand 
and  awful  time,"  the  hymn  says  —  and  I  repeat  it :  — 

"  We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling, 
In  a  grand  and  awful  time," 

when  the  heavens  have  been  luminous  with  the  splendor  of  the 
Ascension,  and  are  destined  to  be  luminous  again  with  the  awful 
glory  of  the  coming  for  Judgment;  and  now  is  our  time  for 
work  —  for  work  with  the  energy  of  the  Divine  Spirit  whose  dis- 
pensation this  is.  That  Spirit  wrote  his  gospel  by  the  inspiration 
of  human  minds,  and  by  the  instruments  of  human  hands,  on 
leaves  of  parchment  and  papyrus.  He  is  writing  his  gospel  now, 
at  large,  through  his  inspiration  of  human  minds  and  guidance  of 
human  hands  over  the  expanses  of  the  continents.  But  it  is  the 
same  gospel  —  the  gospel  of  sin,  the  gospel  of  atonement,  the 
gospel  of  regeneration,  the  gospel  of  future  judgment,  and  of  future 
glory  for  the  believing.  That  is  the  gospel ;  and  we  are  to  go  with 
him  in  extending  the  knowledge  of  that  and  in  writing  it  ourselves. 
Wheresoever  we  have  the  opportunity,  that  is  our  work ;  a  work 
greater,  more  momentous,  wider  in  its  relations,  than  any  other 
done  upon  the  earth. 

Let  us  not  forget  then  the  meanness,  the  misery  and  evilness,  of 
human  society,  where  the  gospel  does  not  enter  and  pervade  it. 


1 86  THE  PERMANENT  MOTIVE 

Let  us  not  forget  the  recoverableness  to  God  of  every  person  and 
every  people,  if  the  divine  energies  are  rightly  used.  Let  us  not 
forget  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  the  power  at  which  men  laugh 
and  say,  "  You  are  trying  to  quarry  mountains  with  sunbeams ; 
you  are  trying  to  lift  masses  of  masonry  with  aerial  or,  at  best, 
with  silken  threads."  It  is  the  gospel  of  Christ  which  is  to  be 
the  power  to  lift  mankind,  and  glorify  God,  on  all  the  continents, 
in  all  the  earth.  The  passion  of  love  for  Christ,  stimulated  by 
everything  that,  we  read  or  hear,  quickened  by  the  Spirit  in  our 
hearts,  is  the  power  that  is  to  loosen  amassed  wealth  and  make  it 
fluent,  that  is  to  vitalize  dead  wealth  and  make  it  active,  that  is  to 
enter  into  every  languid  heart  and  inspire  it  for  service.  And 
then  the  view  of  the  Divine  Providence  working  in  history  toward 
one  result,  steadily  steering  toward  one  haven  and  port,  —  the 
earth  renewed  in  righteousness  and  ^beautiful  before  God ;  and 
then  this  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  in  which  we  have  our  time  ! 
After  the  Resurrection,  a  disciple  said,  "  I  go  a-fishing."  Like- 
wise said  they  all.  It  seems  strange  that  even  after  that  miracle, 
which  has  shot  its  radiance  everywhere  upon  the  history  of  the 
world,  any  disciple  should  have  yielded  to  such  an  impulse.  But 
now  shall  we,  after  the  Ascension  and  when  the  skies  are  still 
glowing  with  it,  after  Pentecost  has  opened  heavenly  principali- 
ties and  powers  to  our  view  and  our  experience,  under  the  shadow 
of  the  great  White  Throne  that  is  to  be  set  in  heaven  —  shall  we 
go  to  building  and  bargaining,  to  mining  and  merchandising,  as 
our  chief  aim  in  life,  and  omit  this  sublimest  service  which  angels, 
it  seems  to  me,  must  bend  above  the  battlements  of  heaven  to 
see  in  its  progress,  and  to  make  their  hearts  and  harps  jubilant  in 
its  vitality  and  success  ? 

Oh,  my  friends,  let  us  remember,  wheresoever  we  labor,  that 
our  errand  is  to  make  this  complex,  complete,  energetic  mission- 
ary motive  more  clear  to  every  mind,  more  thoroughly  vigorous 
and  energetic  in  every  heart.  Everything  else  must  be  post- 
poned !  Do  not  let  us  spend  our  strength  in  picking  the  gospel 
to  pieces,  to  see  if  we  can't  put  it  together  again  in  a  better 
fashion  !  Do  not  let  us  spend  our  strength  in  any  denominational 
controversies  or  collisions.     Let  us  give  ourselves,  with  all  our 


IN  MISSIONARY   WORK.  I  8/ 

power,  to  making  this  immense  missionary  motive  operative 
throughout  all  the  churches,  throughout  and  in  all  Christian 
hearts ;  till  He  shall  come  whose  right  it  is  to  reign,  and  take  unto 
himself  his  great  power,  and  rule  King  of  Nations  as  well  as  King 
of  Saints.  Let  us  recognize  this  as  the  one  truly  magnificent 
errand  for  man  on  the  earth.  Let  us  be  filled  with  the  Divine 
Spirit,  that  we  may  accomplish  it  the  more  perfectly.  Let  us  never 
intermit  the  service.  And  if,  as  we  grow  older,  we  grow  weary 
with  cares  and  labors,  and  it  may  be  with  sorrows,  and  are  dis- 
posed sometimes  to  think  we  may  now  rest,  let  us  remember  the 
word  of  Arnauld,  the  illustrious  Port  Royalist,  whom  even  his 
passionate  enemies,  the  Jesuits,  admitted  to  be  great,  of  whom  it 
is  recorded  that  when  some  one  said  to  him,  "You  have 
labored  long,  now  is  your  time  to  rest !  "  his  reply  was,  "  Rest? 
Why  rest,  here  and  now,  when  I  have  a  whole  Eternity  to  rest 
in?"  God  in  his  grace  open  that  tranquil  and  luminous  Eternity 
to  each  of  us,  where  we  may  rest  in  nobler  praise  and  grander 
work,  forevermore ;  and  unto  Him  be  all  the  praise  ! 


on   Theological  Scmmary-Sppef   Library 


1    1012  01087  9742 


Date  Due 

Mr  1 5 

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